Identifying and Redacting Privileged Information

• US 20130036478A1
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Published: 02/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: DAVIS, Pamela H., BEAUMONT, Theresa, KUMAR, Shailesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,752,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Systems and methods for identifying and redacting privileged information automatically in electronic discovery documents such as emails are disclosed. In reviewing documents for discovery review, some documents have both privileged and non-privileged information. Significant cost savings are achieved in conducting electronic discovery by automatically identifying and redacting privileged content while preserving non-privileged information for production.

Claims

1. A method for redacting privileged information from an email thread, comprising:

identifying a set of email threads containing one or more potentially privileged emails;

locating a particular email thread in the set of email threads containing correspondence with a non-privileged party;

when the correspondence with the non-privileged party is a last-in-time email, marking the email thread as non-privileged; and

when the correspondence with the non-privileged party is not the last-in-time email, automatically redacting emails from the email thread that are later in time than the correspondence with the non-privileged party.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically redacting emails is based on email message timestamps.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying a set of email threads containing one or more potentially privileged emails comprises searching the set of email threads for the presence of privilege terms or attorneys.

4. A method for redacting privileged information from an email thread, comprising:

identifying a set of email threads containing one or more potentially privileged emails;

locating a particular email thread in the set of email threads containing correspondence with a privileged party; and

when the correspondence with the privileged party is not the last-in-time email, automatically redacting emails from the email thread that are later in time than the correspondence with the privileged party, including the correspondence with the privileged party.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said automatically redacting emails comprises at least one of redacting emails in native format or redacting emails in searchable image format.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said locating a particular email thread in the set of email threads containing correspondence with a privileged party comprises searching to, from, and cc, fields of the emails.

7. A computer implemented method for redacting, at a server, privileged information from an email thread, the method comprising:

receiving, at the server, an email thread containing potentially privileged information;

searching the email thread for an adverse party in a last-in-time communication;

searching the email thread for an adverse party not in the last-in-time communication;

searching the email thread for an attorney in the last-in-time communication;

searching the email thread for an attorney not in the last-in-time communication;

determining a portion of the email thread that is privileged; and

automatically redacting the portion of the email thread that is privileged.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising preparing the email thread for production in litigation discovery.

9. A computer-based system for redacting privileged information from an email thread, comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more repositories configured to store at least one of responsive documents, privileged parties, adverse parties, or privilege terms;

a privilege determination module configured to receive a selected one of the responsive documents and to determine whether the selected one of the responsive documents is privileged based on the presence of at least one of the privileged parties, adverse parties, or privileged terms; and

an output module configured to redact portions of the selected responsive document based on the privilege determination of the privilege determination module.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a domain name extraction module for extracting domain names from the email thread.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising an email extraction module for extracting emails from the email thread.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the one or more repositories is automatically populated by the email extraction module for extracting emails from the email thread.

13. A tangible computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer program logic recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

identify a set of email threads containing one or more potentially privileged emails;

locate a particular email thread in the set of email threads containing correspondence with a non-privileged party;

when the correspondence with the non-privileged party is a last-in-time email, mark the email thread as non-privileged; and

when the correspondence with the non-privileged party is not the last-in-time email, automatically redact emails from the email thread that are later in time than the correspondence with the non-privileged party.

14. The tangible computer program product of claim 13, wherein said computer readable storage medium having computer program logic recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to automatically redact emails based on email message timestamps.

15. The tangible computer program product of claim 13, wherein said computer readable storage medium having computer program logic recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to identify a set of email threads containing one or more potentially privileged emails by searching the set of email threads for the presence of privilege terms or attorneys.

16. The tangible computer program product of claim 13, wherein said computer readable storage medium having computer program logic recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to automatically redact emails by at least one of redacting emails in native format or redacting emails in searchable image format.

17. The tangible computer program product of claim 13, wherein said computer readable storage medium having computer program logic recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to locate a particular email thread in the set of email threads containing correspondence with a privileged party by searching to, from, and cc fields of the emails.