BTLOC · Discovery Reality Check
The One-Minute Discovery Reality Check
How much are you paying for discovery?
One anchor metric. Six control questions. See whether discovery cost is visible early enough to explain, compare, and manage.
Most discovery teams have reporting. Fewer have clear or consistent control.
The difference is whether the team can see what is driving cost, where work is waiting, and what to prioritize—while there is still time to adjust.
Why small $/doc differences matter at scale
Even a small change in cost per document can make a material difference in total cost—especially in high-volume matters.
POTENTIAL
COST
CHANGE
Formula: document population × change in cost per document. Illustrative only—not a savings estimate. Actual results depend on comparable scope and quality requirements, workflow, baseline conditions, and how the cost boundary and document population are defined.
Anchor Metric
Discovery Operations $/doc — cost per document
Defined discovery cost ÷ unique processed documents
Cost baseline: Start with core discovery operations: collection, processing, hosting/platform licensing, review operations, and production. Add other reliably allocable discovery costs in an expanded view. The goal is to make discovery spend visible enough to explain, compare, and manage—not review cost alone.
Volume basis (denominator): Use unique processed documents after deduplication, before culling or review reduction. Exclude collected-but-untouched data. Keep the cost boundary and counting rule consistent, and align cost and volume cutoffs at each update.
From metrics to matter control
Cost is the entry point—not the whole operating picture. Discovery Operations CPD shows the defined cost per processed document to date. Current volumes, committed rates, and expected work support a forecast of discovery cost to complete. Both become more useful when the team can track key cost drivers with a consistent owner and a plan for deciding what happens next.
Answer six questions to check whether the operating signals are visible enough to use. If the team cannot readily retrieve a supported answer, that is a visibility gap.
Discovery Visibility Check
Visibility Gap: If you answered No to Question 1 (Discovery Operations CPD) or Question 2 (early cost visibility), start your operations analysis there.
The Install Sequence
Three moves to establish matter control. Each makes the next one useful.
Define the signal
Establish Discovery Operations CPD using a written cost boundary, a defined processed-document denominator, and a shared cutoff date. Maintain a discovery cost forecast and interpret movement against the matter’s stage—and then the changes from case to case.
Diagnose the drivers
Identify the volume, workflow, staffing, rework, vendor, scope, and quality conditions moving the number. This shows where intervention may be useful and which decision the signal should support.
Establish the control
Assign an owner, review cadence, decision rights, quality signal, and escalation triggers. Review actuals against a forecast so movement shows up before the invoice does. Then install the smallest useful control against the driver that matters most.
The number is the signal. The operating rhythm is the control.
Discovery can be less painful, less time-consuming, and less costly.
For a matter-specific answer, a Discovery Operations Review maps the workflow, establishes a decision-grade baseline, and clarifies the smallest useful next operational step.