BlueStar Case Solutions
Comprehensive Strategies to Reduce Litigation Spend

“To attain success, you have to surround yourself with a great team, devise a solid business strategy, and rely on experience, wisdom and knowledge to turn around an opportunity,” details Greg Estes, Partner and Co-Founder, BlueStar Case Solutions. The prospect presented by the legal industry’s shift from the billable hour, towards a flat fee or a predictable litigation spend model has enabled BlueStar to carve success through its comprehensive litigation service suite.

Headquartered in Chicago, BlueStar is providing the corporate legal departments with insights into their data, and assisting the company’s outside counsels in litigation strategies at a much lower cost. “Our standardization of processes, flat rates for services, creative approach to repurposing data, and bundled service discounts–all assist the General Counsels looking to rein in their litigation spend without sacrificing the quality of representation during litigation,” says Monte Summers, Partner and Co-Founder, BlueStar.

BlueStar’s range of services spans the entire Electronic Discovery Reference Model—right from collection and identification through production. The company’s risk avoidance and cost management consulting initiatives start even before the litigation process. “Our Legal Analysis and Spend Reduction (LASR) strategy assesses the client’s current litigation spend and offers suggestions on saving money based on usage,” states Summers.

The experience drawn over a decade in e-discovery processing and consulting has helped BlueStar build infrastructure and software capabilities to handle any projects irrespective of the size, to pass on the benefits in terms of pricing to the customers. On the security front, Estes asserts, “We rely heavily on the most secure cloud infrastructures. We have private clouds on Amazon with full backup, redundancies and colocation and we also utilize Microsoft’s Azure for additional backups and fail-safes.”

BlueStar’s ability to quickly adapt to changing technologies has provided clients with superior service and repeatable dependability. In a highlight on cost-effectiveness, a Fortune 500 company had a litigation matter that involved enormous amount of data and a fast approaching discovery deadline.

Our Legal Analysis and Spend Reduction strategy assesses the client’s current litigation spend and offers suggestions on saving money based on usage

Since the case was in response to a federal grand jury subpoena, sophisticated issue coding was necessary, along with responsiveness, privilege, and confidentiality analysis. BlueStar developed a sophisticated keyword search strategy and was able to reduce the client’s raw data down to 35 percent for a manageable review. “By engaging BlueStar instead of outside counsel for the document review, the client saved 85 percent,” says Summers. The value added services from BlueStar on monthly data hosting charges also brought in a discount of 75 percent during the pendency of the document review.

By delivering a unified approach to all phases of e-discovery, BlueStar helps law firms to reign in e-discovery costs for their clients and gain more control. The company is rolling out a new and unique approach to control e-discovery costs with a new pricing model—E-Discovery Price Control Plan. In a nutshell, it allows the firm to set the price of e-discovery, enabling them control over the cost of services. “We are providing the lowest possible price with no hidden pricing surprises at the end, however without impacting quality. In the absence of financial complexity from negotiations, clients benefit from a faster beginning to e-discovery and overall reduction in litigation expenses,” says Estes.

BlueStar is currently working on support for upstream e-discovery processes, early case and data assessment activities and Technology Assisted Review. “As the e-discovery market continues to mature, and our modes of communication continue to evolve, we believe that BlueStar's ability to be a true partner will win the day,” concludes Summers.