Relativity - Platform for EDiscovery and More

Ediscovery is made simpler with Relativity. The processing of data into Relativity can be done through either Relativity's software or other processing engines. This is an excellent tool to organize case files, legal research, and paper discovery.

Pros

The processing and review functions are superb and can be customized to any type of matter or workflow. THere are a variety of built in tools that allow data to be viewed at the macro or micro level, depending on your needs. With as little as 20 minutes of training any lawyer or paralegal can easily learn how the system works, apply substantive coding and redactions.

Cons

Sometimes the features are hard to configure without Admin help, but once you get the hang of it, the platform is scalable.

Best e-Discovery Software Possible

My business' legal department has been utilizing Relativity for e-Discovery document review. Numerous documents from either party believed to be relevant are uploaded to a server. From that point, administrators access Relativity and can set up searches for specific keywords, individuals, dates, issues, etc., and then save these searches to be accessed later. Searches of specific information by keyword and date allowed attorneys to divvy up the searches to a manageable amount and was crucial in ensuring the department got through the documents necessary in order to prepare for upcoming depositions. Relativity allowed lawyers to comb through millions of emails, each one getting tagged for a specific issue as it pertained to the case. When the department had finished, it was interesting to use Relativity and see which aspects of the case we had found the most evidence to win, which aspects were weak, and which individuals would be best to depose.

Pros

Relativity allows for efficient and thorough document review. All documents on the database can be searched through any combination of Relativity's search matrices. Searches can easily be saved, copied, edited, and saved again. As well, it is easy to organize these saved searches into categories, each referring to a specific individual or a specific aspect of the search. This allows for users to easily pull exactly the documents that are specific to their needs. While every feature could prove useful in a specific circumstance, I found myself mainly utilizing two: the family tab and the email-threading tab. The family tab indicates that their are emails attached to the one you are currently looking at. Similarly, the email-threading tab allows one to visualize the chain of emails, allowing for the entire thread to be edited all at once, rather than individually.

Cons

Given that so much of the back-end of the Relativity website is perfect, I would have to say the design of the user-interface was one of the features I liked least about the program. There are so many icons which indicate a feature or function that can be performed that the screen immediately appears cluttered. With a small amount of white space, it is easy for one's eyes to strain while attempting to read dozens of documents. As well, even when I knew what it was I needed to do, it could be hard to find the right button to push. This issue is minor, however, and after a week or two of use does not become cumbersome. Another small issue somewhat related to this is a lack of "night mode," or the use of black and blue rather than white and grey, which other applications have begun to include and I find is much easier to look at for eight hours a day.

Web interface, Filtering and searching can be more manageable. Standard Features should be included

Review time.

Pros

User friendly, a lot more options to control data. The folder structure and layout views are easy to set up.

Cons

Speed via the web, standard features limited to users unless specifically asked to enable features such as Print, Save, Highlight.

Industry standard for document review software for good reason.

It's a solid and simple way to do ediscovery and other document reviews.

Pros

It's a generally stable review environment with a simple interface and yet a lot of functionality. The software seems to dominate the market as far as I've been exposed because of its ease of use. But it's also easy to learn initially. And as one progresses with more complex reviewing, quality control, and batching needs, the software can keep up while still providing the simple interface.

Cons

When the software is buggy it can be a real slog however. This has rarely been an issue in my experience but it has happened. And when it has happened the crashing was seemingly across the platform for users in multiple locations. I'd say that it's unlikely that it was a lack of adequate hardware supporting it because this was at a major corporation that hosts reviews frequently and in a very large scale.

Best in Class for Legal Document Review

This is the gold standard for document review. Nothing else comes close.

Pros

This is, in general, a fast program. When a search is well-designed then you'll be able to move through a batch of documents in almost no time flat. Also, it's browser and "cloud" based - you don't need any local installations.

Cons

Browser and cloud based is a double edged sword. You need a constant Internet connection to work with this so there's no security "air gap" you can put in place. Also, it is liable to crash your browser on particularly long and large documents.

Pass or Fail based on the Administrator

Pros

Easy to learn document review platform. Coding panels can be as simple or as complex as desired. Multiple databases, document lists and review panels can be created for a single matter.

Cons

The biggest issue is that the functionality of the platform is dictated by the competence of the administrator. If a panel or view is not set up properly, it can cause endless problems for the actual review - simple tasks generate errors causing lost productivity. The use of the database also slows significantly during administrative managment.

Relativity speeds the review process up.

This has been necessary and useful at processing and coding large volumes of documents.

Pros

Good at deciphering text on even difficult to read PDF and word documents.

Cons

Struggles with large files at times, often causing delay.

Works well for a case with many thousands of documents

Pros

The keyword search feature works well. I was able to fairly quickly locate specific documents in the database without having a lot of false positives, and without missing anything important.

Cons

It's a little slow when processing a large batch of documents. I also found the user interface to be a bit hard to use.

Go to software!

Pros

I like that the documentation is extensive and the yearly updates! It is also easy to use.

Cons

What I like least about it is the color choice.

One of the best options but still not my favorite.

Pros

Searching and organizing documents is not overly difficult. Customer service is helpful and offers great tips/training.

Cons

There is not an intuitive way to organize documents by issues or witnesses. Multiple reviews are needed to re-tag documents.

Relativity- There is a reason it has been an industry leader for years

We use Relativity for document review for eDiscovery. I like it it because they have a proven track record for reliability and have worked out the bugs already where many of the newer are still doing that.

Pros

The functionality and reliability are second to none. KCura has developed tools for everything you can think of for e Discovery since they have been a leader for many years in this industry. I also like that it is easy to use and that I can teach new users how to use the system in about 15 minutes. Also since it is so widely used by others in our field, most folks come in with a history of use of Relativity and can pick up and go without any training.

Cons

The price is the only real drawback to Relativity as it costs significantly more than many other eDiscovery platforms because it has so many more functions. Extra costs like monthly user fees per reviewer can really add up over the course of a long case.

Biggest Player in the Game, with good Reason!

This is good stuff, and the search options are incredibly powerful and easy to use. You can easily batch documents for review, or use saved searches to do the same. Searching, sorting, batching - you name it, it does it well. Sadly, the UI leaves a lot to be desired as its pretty clunky to review with.

Pros

This software is the big daddy for document review for years. It is compatible with just about any document type you will throw at it. Additionally, the ability to quickly move and change document coding tags is fantastic. The search engine on it is second to none, and your key terms are highlighted within the document. Additionally, you can break down a document from native format to plain text, which can help you ID the terms you're looking for

Cons

This is clunky software that shows its age. The UI for review is slow and can be difficult to work with, and there aren't a lot of great options for batch processing. Also, the software times out on sessions so if you get yourself distracted by an important task you may find your session timed out, losing your place in the document queue.

The Relativity software provides best results when it works smoothly

Overall the software is amazing and it often is used by legal firms and accounting entities. You will not go wrong with Relativity - its a decent price for the best results. Highly recommended

Pros

I truly enjoyed the software's capacity to learn from a subset of documents and administer a wide range of criteria to a database. The program, when it works smoothly, and it often does, will allow for the review of thousands, even millions of documents, with little effort and make your review effortless.

Cons

When the system is down, and it rarely is, you are stuck waiting for the technical glitch to be worked out. Like I said, it doesn't happen all that often but when it does you might have some downtime.

Relativity works

Has been a solid and reliable litigation support system. The latency issues are recent and hopefully be correcred but is?troubling.

Pros

Ease of use, has good search options. Support for Relativity is good, and generally provides for the needs of most document reviews and give The quick response needed.

Cons

Latency issues cause document to not load properly. End of coding a different document.

The most user friendly e-discovery tool

ease to complete large scale projects

Pros

Even for someone who isn't very technologically savvy, this program is very easy to figure out; I quickly learned how to run various searches, and implement the necessary tools to customize my projects

Cons

There is occasionally down time on the weekends, which impedes my ability to do work when I seek to put in some extra hours

Great feature and user friendly.

Pros

Manages basic features in client data preservation. User friendly and interchangeable layout views per company/client preferences.

Cons

Internet Explorer network lag/misconnections. Vendor preferences versus client/lawfirm preferences in accordance to layout view and admin permissions.

The product is easy to use and there is lots of documentation on how to do things within the product

Pros

What I like most about the software is how it is structured, the layout and its appearance. The user interface is eye appealing.

Cons

The thing that I like least about the software is that I only open one instance of the product at a time.

Relativity is a user-friendly e-discovery platform and one of the best that I have used during years of document review.

Pros

One of my favorite components of Relativity is the ability for a user to copy coding from the previous document. It is also very easy to check batches in and out and the coding fields are visually easy to access.

Cons

Like all e-discovery platforms, Relativity is sometimes really slow to load documents. In addition, I don't like that you cannot save comments while still in the process of reviewing a document.

Relativity Strong Enough

Managing large document productions in legal cases where electronic discovery is needed.

Pros

I like the ease of use of this software and how it is intuitive and allows you to complete large document reviews efficiently and economically.

Cons

In comparison to other solutions on the market, Relativity may seem expensive but in reality once you get to use it you realize that you get what you pay for and Relativity provides efficiency and great customer support.

Relativity to the Rescue

Relativity is an efficient tool to use for electronic discovery and document review. It keeps your reviews organized and ready for depositions, trials, etc.

Pros

Relativity is very easy to use and can be customize to fit your project. It is an efficient tool to use for large document reviews.

Cons

It could be costly but it is totally worthy as it will make your document reviews a breeze.

Go-to software for doc review

It's the standard software for doc review and any type of ediscovery work. Got nothing to complain.

Pros

It's almost the standard software for doc review. It's been on the market for quite a while so there's plenty of resources if you run into problems.

Cons

It takes time to learn and get used to it. My organization has plenty of training sessions, but I'm not sure about other organizations. It's a bit tough to figure out on your own.

Relativity is a powerhorse

Pros

I love that you can fashion any search you need, plus it offers other tools (like clustering) to look at data so that you can get to the important issues

Cons

Over a nationwide network, we experience slowness in the west offices (servers are hosted in the east).

Comprehensive Document Management

Relativity is comprehensive and effective for litigation document management.

Pros

Relativity has a great range of functionality for document management. The granularity of the search function is particularly useful.

Cons

The learning curve is a bit steep, but that’s to be expected of something with so much functionality.

Relativity - Great ESI Review Platform

Overall, my experience with Relativity has been positive and productive.

Pros

Relativity offers intuitive, easy-to-understand features that permit the quick review and analysis of electronically-stored information ("ESI") when set up by a reputable e-discovery vendor.

Cons

There is a significant learning curve to master if one really wants to unlock all of the power of Relativity, and the server response can sometimes be slow.

Using for our larger document review platforms.

Pros

Ease of use, variety of functions and features available, variety of third-party add-on features available, such as, Veritone.

Cons

It's very very very very difficult to even think of any cons whatsoever to Relativity. Perhaps users license fees would be a con.

Many features

Pros

There are many features and it is extremely easy to transfer documents with opposing counsel.

Cons

It’s difficult to get your annotations out of the software.

Workhorse

This is great for large scale production especially when you have a team working on document review.

Pros

This software has a lot of capabilities and is very intricate. You can set numerous parameters and there are a TON of features.

Cons

I didn't find this software to be extremely user friendly. Less importantly, the aesthetics were great either. I found it kind of hard to read.

Relativity Review

Overall I enjoy using Relativity. My experience has been positive and it has made e-discovery work enjoyable.

Pros

I use Relativity to review e-discovery. The software is easy to use and provides various features such as highlighting and an interactive search panel that make analyzing and coding complex legal documents more efficient and stream-lined.

Cons

The software can be slow at times. This becomes frustrating when trying to code a certain number of documents per hour.

Nextpoint >>> Relativity

All in all, I've had a net-positive experience with Relativity. But they are pricing themselves out of our clients' market now with other more-affordable options like Nextpoint showing up on the scene.

Pros

My favorite thing about Relativity is the customization it allows for. The software basically allows you to customize every space to fit whatever needs you have for a particular document review. I also like the software's ability to track metrics for reviews (i.e., reviewer pace/accuracy).

Cons

My least favorite thing about this software is the exorbitant price (licensing fees are very high).

Archaic legacy program

The platform's poor performance and high cost made it easy to get rid of and replace it with a more modern, efficient and less costly alternative. Everyone in our firm expressed great joy and relief when we replaced Relativity.

Pros

It is a review platform. There isn't anything else I can say that is a pro for this software.

Cons

It's cumbersome, clunky and exceedingly expensive. The platform still relies on .TIFF images when the rest of the world, including all Federal Courts, have moved on the far superior .PDF. It's difficult to wrestle away high level granular administrative control from vendors unless you pay even more to become "certified". It's production tool is difficult to work with and it's difficult to teach to new users.

Very solid document review software

Pros

Relativity is relatively easy to use, after an initial learning curve. There are good features for tagging and marking documents. Very useful.

Cons

With a lot of documents uploaded for review, the loading times can be slow.

Very useful software

Overall, I am quite pleased with this software. It generally allows me to get my work done efficiently and quickly.

Pros

This software is very user friendly and has improved significantly over the years that I've used it.

Cons

At times, the program can freeze up or take a long time to review one document to the next. I also dislike that there are conversion errors for some documents.

It's just okay, probably not worth the exorbitant costs

If you'll need to be able to narrow down your search more so you can jump to places within the document where your keyword search appears, have a tech assist set it up for your keywords right away.

Pros

We have a project with 1.5 million pages. It can quickly narrow down keyword searches to return documents with the keyword in them.

Cons

To be able to go specifically jump to the place where your keyword appears within the document requires background work done by a tech, which makes absolutely zero sense when the document is already text recognized. We are paying $xx,xxx.00 a month, I don't want to be waiting on someone else to complete all the background work before I can jump in. It should just automatically be part of the software. It is almost faster to take all those documents convert them to pdf and OCR them myself, then you could avoid all the costs to relativity and having to wait on someone else.

Discovery software

Pros

This software enables our firm to locate and share discovery all in one place.

Cons

The login field is difficult to find, but everything else is intuitive.

I have used Relativity for E-Discovery projects.

Pros

Relativity is fairly well known therefore although there are many other options is is sort of a standard in the industry.

Cons

Relativity is not at all intuitive. Especially from the administrator perspective, in my opinion.

Why I won’t suggest Relativity

We’ve hosted a few cases and most of the team were not satisfied with it.

Pros

The Analytics and all the bells and whistles provided with the product.

Cons

The product is to complex and I believe that all the features over complicate it.

Once working, it is a good product for e-discovery and document review.

Document production via e-discovery. Sort through thousands of documents on relatifely short time.

Pros

Search terms enable you to sort through voluminous databases. Easy to create folders and produce documents. Speed is faster than most competitors.

Cons

Difficult implementation. Technical set up a lot more complicated than end user experience. Support not the best.

This program, if customized appropriately by the vendor, is very powerful.

Great product for sure - needs a good vendor.

Pros

It has a robust searching and organization capability. Depending upon the vendor who is supporting this program, it can be incredibly helpful in litigation and due diligence projects.

Cons

It requires substantial interaction with a vendor to appropriately set this up. The cost is also a consideration and can be expensive if used on small or one-off projects.

Worst E discovery platform

Pros

Once you learn this software its easy to get document review jobs since most companies use Relativity.

Cons

So buggy and difficult to use. It must be inexpensive since so many companies use it as their main platform. I hate working on doc review jobs that use Relativity. It is such a headache!

Metadata does not accumulate generally. There is a need to type not functional.

I cannot say much. They have a big issue on accumulating meta data.

Pros

It generally works smoothly. There is no stucking between screens and no frozen screens. It is fast.

Cons

Interface and ease of use is not good. There is a big problem of accumulation of metadata. It is not user friendly.

Good for E-Discovery projects

Pros

I like using the keyword search feature and I believe the layout of the software is visually appealing.

Cons

A lot of times we receive very large documents, so the software itself takes a while to load. As well, it sometimes is a bit difficult to search within the document, as we have asked for assistance from a tech expert to help out.

Has it All, but Confusing

It seems like the more common ediscovery software, but I think improvements can still be made.

Pros

Relativity really does seem to have anything and everything I could possibly need for my ediscovery purposes.

Cons

So many of the features are not intuitive at all—and things that you would think would be super simple, like adjusting the view.

If you pay for it, it will deliver...

Unsurprisingly, as the market leader for e-discovery platforms, Relativity sets the gold standard for overall quality and functionality. However, the learning curve is very steep, as is the cost.

Used to review large quantities of documents

Pros

The software allowed for the organization large batches of documents. And allowed multiple people to seamlessly work together.

Cons

The navigational tools and menus of the software were difficult to figure out. And easy to confuse and therefore misselect

Relativity is an okay case manager

Pros

I like how straight forward it is to use. Being able to manage documents in it is a huge plus.

Cons

It is a really glitchy software, numerous times I've had issues with the relativity web viewer plugin.