ediscclaw_skill

Overview

This skill brings full E-Discovery processing into your terminal so small firms can handle review and production without expensive vendors. It processes, deduplicates, culls, indexes, and exports production-ready load files locally. The tool focuses on cost-effective, defensible workflows that mirror what Big Law litigation support floors provide. Local-first design keeps ESI under your control and preserves auditability.

How this skill works

edisclaw ingests common ESI sources (PST, MBOX, MSG, PDFs, Office files, images) and stores processed data locally. It runs deduplication (MD5 and near-duplicate options), date/file-type culling, keyword and Boolean searches, and creates full-text indexes for rapid review. Review and tagging happen in an interactive mode, with optional TAR (technology-assisted review) for prioritized review and court-defensible validation. Final production exports Concordance, Relativity, or EDRM-compatible load files and generates audit logs and defensibility reports.

When to use it

• You need to avoid high per-GB vendor costs and keep ESI in-house.
• Preparing discovery for a case with limited budget or tight timelines.
• Running internal investigations where data control and chain-of-custody matter.
• When you must produce load files in Concordance, Relativity, or EDRM format.
• Needing quick culling and responsive tagging before a meet-and-confer.

Best practices

• Ingest custodians separately and name matters clearly to preserve provenance.
• Run MD5 dedup first, then near-dedup on larger matters to reduce review volume.
• Use date and file-type culling to remove irrelevant noise before indexing.
• Seed and validate TAR with a representative sample to ensure defensibility.
• Keep regular exported audit logs and defensibility reports for court readiness.

Example use cases

• A solo practitioner ingests a client’s PST, deduplicates, runs keyword search, and produces Concordance load files without outsourcing.
• In-house counsel performs a rapid internal investigation by culling by date, filtering file types, and reviewing responsive hits locally.
• A small firm prepares for discovery meet-and-confer by producing a prioritized review set using TAR to meet tight deadlines.
• Paralegals batch-process multiple custodians, generate review stats by custodian, and export a production log for the file.