eDiscovery Hourly Rates Heat Up

The Summer 2022 eDiscovery Pricing Survey Results Are Out blog with CoomplexDiscovery and eDiscoveryToday logos

The Summer 2022 eDiscovery Pricing Survey results stewarded by ComplexDiscovery’s Rob Robinson were released this week. The eighth semi-annual survey with participation from over sixty professionals, provides a snapshot of prices in our current timeframe.

With work from home, pandemic restrictions on trials, supply chain issues and a hot candidates’ market, the ComplexDiscovery Pricing Survey can be used to pinpoint trends in pricing unit costs, hourly rates and alternative fees over time. The survey results are very helpful as a data point and input for budgets, burden and proportionality calculations.

Among the surprises were document review rates reported by over half of participants to be upwards of $40 per hour. There is no surprise that survey participants report project management rates of over $200 showing an increase at the expense of the $150-200 band. The survey was conducted prior to the selloff in the market late May. The next survey will reflect whether these increases will stand.

Per GB, Per Hour, Per Document charges and Alternative Fees are covered in this comprehensive survey for various activities within collection, processing and review.

Survey creator Rob Robinson explains:

This is not a perfect survey. Nor is it an all-inclusive survey. However, it does attempt to characterize baseline pricing expectations for twelve specific eDiscovery-centric offerings from the perspective of cybersecurity, information governance, and legal discovery professionals operating in the eDiscovery ecosystem.

Summer 2022 eDiscovery Pricing Survey

Doug Austin, founder and editor of eDiscovery Today, an EDRM Trusted Partner, celebrated the survey stating

“Only Rob Robinson could get 60 people (54 of them providers) to talk about what isn’t talked about in this industry. A “must-have” resource for anyone who may have a need for any of these services in the near (or even not so near) future.

Doug Austin, eDiscovery Today

Get the results of the Summer 2022 eDiscovery Pricing Survey here.

Past eDiscovery Pricing Surveys can be found here.

Author

  • Mary Mack

    Mary Mack is the CEO and Chief Legal Technologist for EDRM. Mary was the co-editor of the Thomson Reuters West Treatise, eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel for 10 years and the co-author of A Process of Illumination: the Practical Guide to Electronic Discovery. She holds the CISSP among her certifications.