Enhancing Law Firm Profitability: Leverage Data Policies Within Relativity

Law firms across the country often find themselves with a common problem: Data management becomes a full-time job. Matters pile up across storage states. Retention schedules get missed. Storage bills climb. Meanwhile, staff members spend hours running activity reports and coordinating data transfers rather than generating revenue.

This doesn't have to be the case! Find out how to enhance law firm profitability with CaseFlow.

The Real Cost of Neglecting Data Policies

When firms fail to implement structured data policies, the costs add up quickly. Extended review times occur because data sits unsorted and redundant. Compliance risks emerge when retention rules aren't followed. Administrative overhead grows as teams manually manage data migrations. Work product gets recreated on similar Matters instead of being reused.

These inefficiencies compound across every client, every month. Improvements in data management efficiency will free up resources that can be redirected toward billable work.

How Data Moves Through Relativity

Understanding Relativity's data lifecycle is vital for building effective policies. Data typically moves through four storage states, though the order is flexible depending on the case.

Staging serves as a temporary holding area for raw data before processing. It's useful for managing subscription costs because you only add data to your instance when it's ready. However, it gets expensive if not actively maintained. Best practices require the continuous cleanup of Staging.

The Repository Workspace stores documents and coding decisions for future reuse. This stage is particularly valuable for early case assessment workflows. Data can be processed and strategically filtered in Repository mode, and then only selected data is pushed to separate Review workspaces. This approach works well when the same data needs separate reviews for multiple Matters. It also reduces overall subscription utilization by culling data before it moves to more expensive storage.

The Review Workspace is where active review, coding, and production happen. It’s the most expensive storage state because it’s actively in use. If a workspace isn't being reviewed, it should be moved to a different stage to save costs.

Cold Storage holds inactive cases for the long term at a lower cost. Workspaces can be brought back online on short notice when needed. They are initially billed at their original rate until the next calendar month, when billing automatically switches to the Cold Storage rate.

The Administrative Burden

In firms with high volumes of clients and Matters, managing these transitions becomes overwhelming. Lit-support teams must run activity reports, review client agreements, and manually coordinate the transfer of cases between states. When data volumes and case variety grow rapidly, keeping up with workspace transitions can become a full-time role, requiring coordination with clients and project managers.

The result is that staff’s time is spent on administrative tasks rather than client work.

Automating Data Policies With CaseFlow

CaseFlow addresses this problem by automating data lifecycle management within Relativity. The tool continuously monitors the entire Relativity instance and executes administrative actions based on predefined rules. Configuration occurs at both the instance and the individual client or Matter levels, enabling firms to adapt policies to different client retention agreements.

The tool handles four key functions:

1. Automated Data Lifecycle Management. This removes the manual burden. CaseFlow monitors your instance and automatically moves Matters through the appropriate storage states based on rules that you define. You won’t have to run any more activity reports or manually coordinate moves.
2. Intelligent Identification of Inactive Matters. This solves the problem of determining which workspaces can be moved to different states. CaseFlow uses dynamic configurations to define what "activity" means for each Matter and accurately reports which activities are inactive. It prevents mistakes that cause active Matters to be archived accidentally.
3. Automated Archiving With Stakeholder Notifications. This ensures that all relevant teams are notified before archiving. Stakeholders can stop the auto-archive action with a single click, which resets the timer. This prevents cases from going offline unexpectedly and impacting client agreements or ongoing work.
4. Actions On-Demand. This enables administrators to schedule data lifecycle tasks from a single interface. Whether moving a single Matter to Repository mode, placing multiple Matters into Cold Storage, or archiving offline, you can schedule all actions in one place instead of running repeated manual processes.

The Financial Impact

Automating data lifecycle management reduces storage costs in concrete ways. You can:

• Eliminate overage fees from overflowing Staging areas
• Stop paying Review workspace rates for inactive Matters
• Reduce the administrative cost of staff time spent manually coordinating data moves
• Avoid compliance costs that come from missed retention schedules

The savings compound because they happen across every Matter in your instance simultaneously.

Building Your Data Policy Framework

Implementing effective data policies requires three elements. First, you must establish standardized classification schemes that work across Matter types and practice areas. Second, define clear policies for workspace transitions when Matters conclude. Third, implement monitoring systems that track policy effectiveness and identify optimization opportunities.

The key metrics to track are:

• Storage cost per Matter
• Data-processing time
• Review efficiency rates
• Policy compliance rates
• Client satisfaction with data handling

A Competitive Advantage to Increase Law Firm Profitability

Firms that implement comprehensive data policies create advantages that build over time. Better data management enables you to handle more Matters more efficiently. Improved compliance capabilities mean you can command higher rates by demonstrating superior data handling and risk management. Reusable work product from consistent classification means less rework across similar Matters. The firms that act on these opportunities first will build competitive advantages that compound over time.

Next Steps

The path to enhanced law firm profitability through better data policies starts with honesty about current practices. How much are you spending on data storage that could be reduced? How much time are you losing to inefficient data management? CaseFlow provides a way to answer those questions and act on the solutions. The tool automates the manual processes that have become too difficult to manage effectively.

The question isn't whether you can afford to implement better data policies. It's whether you can afford not to.

Stop letting inefficient processes drain your firm's profitability. Every hour spent on manual case management and disorganized workflows is an hour that could be spent generating revenue. Your clients deserve better, and so does your bottom line. CaseFlow delivers streamlined case management, automated workflows, and real-time insights that free your team to focus on what matters most: practicing law profitably. Ready to drive real efficiency and savings? Discover how CaseFlow can transform your firm's operations.