Excerpt

It's 7 pm on a Friday, and you're still at the office, running reports to figure out which Relativity workspaces can finally be moved to cold storage. Perhaps you're the one fielding urgent calls because a workspace that should have been archived weeks ago is still consuming your storage budget. In any case, if you work with Relativity, you’ve likely noticed that what started as a straightforward document review platform has evolved into a time-consuming mess. Ultimately, it falls on your shoulders to keep track of everything, and the worst part is that the cost of this manual approach extends beyond late nights and weekend work.

When you're manually managing data lifecycle transitions, it’s like you’re playing an expensive game of digital Jenga. If you miss a workspace that should have been moved to repository mode, you're looking at expensive review rates for data that's just sitting there. If you forget to archive completed Matters, those storage costs will compound month after month.

But here's what we've learned from talking to hundreds of legal professionals: Automated solutions can transform your approach from constantly putting out fires to preventing them from ever occurring.

That's what this guide is about. Read on to learn real strategies for reclaiming your time, controlling your costs, and sleeping better because you know that your Relativity environment is working for you instead of against you—all with the help of CaseFlow.

Chapter 1: How to Eliminate the Time-Consuming Chaos of Manual Relativity Data Management

Let's start with what you already know: Manually managing Relativity workspaces is exhausting; it’s a task that always seems to expand beyond the time that you've budgeted for it.

The manual burden starts innocently enough. You just need to run activity reports to see which cases are still active. But then, you have to cross-reference those reports with client agreements to understand the retention requirements. Next, you coordinate with project managers to determine which cases are ready to transition, and finally, you execute the moves through various data stages. What should be a straightforward process becomes a multi-step coordination nightmare, and here's the part that really stings: You're doing this for potentially hundreds of Matters, each with its own timeline and requirements. Due to the high volumes of clients and cases in a typical Relativity instance, moving Matters through the various modes and data stages can easily consume entire days.

This is why CaseFlow's approach makes practical sense. Instead of requiring you to be the central coordinator for all these moving parts, the platform continuously monitors your entire Relativity instance and automatically executes administrative actions. When CaseFlow is your new digital coworker, its only job is to watch your workspaces and make the necessary transitions without you having to remember, schedule, or coordinate anything. This flexibility is what makes this practical for real-world use. CaseFlow can be configured at the instance level for firm-wide policies and at the client and Matter levels for special cases.

The result is that instead of spending your Friday evening running reports and making coordination calls, you're getting summary notifications about what's been handled automatically. Instead of reactive crisis management, you're working proactively with systems that anticipate and address needs before they become problems.

Chapter 2: How to Stay Within Storage Limits With Automated Data Lifecycle Management

Storage costs in Relativity are often the line item that makes partners ask uncomfortable questions during monthly reviews. The challenge is that the billing is calculated based on peak consumption during the month, so even temporary storage spikes can impact your entire monthly bill. Many early adopters of RelativityOne have found themselves in exactly this situation, running out of space and facing large overage fees because their staging areas weren't properly maintained.

Staging is where many law firms often fall short. It serves as a temporary holding area for ARM archives awaiting restoration, for raw data before processing, and for data preparation before importing into RelativityOne. It's incredibly useful for managing subscription utilization, as it only adds data to your instance when you're ready to work with it.

However, here's the catch: Staging requires continuous cleanup and maintenance to stay within contractual limits. It's not a "set it and forget it" solution. Without proper lifecycle management, staging can quickly become an expensive digital junk drawer.

The strategic flow should look something like this: Staging → Repository → Review → Cold Storage → Archive. Each phase serves a specific purpose and has different cost implications. Repository workspaces are ideal for early case assessment workflows, enabling you to strategically filter data before pushing select sets to separate review workspaces. This is particularly valuable when dealing with the same data across multiple Matters that need separate reviews.

Review workspaces are where active work happens, meaning document review, coding, and production. But the key word here is "active." If a workspace isn't being actively reviewed, it should be in the appropriate storage state to align with best practices and reduce costs.

Cold storage offers a middle ground for inactive cases that might need to be brought back online on short notice. Workspaces can be archived directly from cold storage using ARM without needing to return to an active state first. The billing structure is designed to help with this transition.

The goal is strategic cost optimization through proper lifecycle stage management. When you can automatically transition data through these stages with CaseFlow, you’re moving data based on actual usage patterns rather than calendar dates or manual reviews. The result is that you’re saving money by optimizing your entire data strategy.

Chapter 3: How to Prevent Getting Bogged Down Moving Relativity Cases

There's a special kind of frustration that comes with manual Matter transitions. Imagine identifying cases that need to be moved and understanding where they need to go, but actually executing those transitions feels like navigating a maze of dependencies and coordination requirements. Lit-support needs to verify that transitions won't impact active workflows, clients need notification about changes to their Matters, and project managers need confirmation that scheduling won't conflict with upcoming deadlines or hearings. Here's what makes it all worse: These transitions rarely happen in isolation! You're not moving one case on one date. Instead, you're managing multiple Matters that need different actions on different timelines. Some need to move to repository mode next week, others to cold storage next month, and a few need archiving after specific retention periods expire.

The manual approach forces you to maintain detailed schedules, set personal reminders, and somehow keep track of all these moving pieces without dropping anything important. It's project management layered on top of data management, and both suffer when you're trying to do everything manually.

CaseFlow's on-demand actions feature addresses this by providing a single interface for scheduling different data lifecycle actions across single or multiple Matters. Instead of managing separate processes for each type of transition, you can coordinate everything from a single location.

The practical benefit is significant. Do you need to schedule repository conversions for five cases next week and cold storage transitions for three others next month? You can set it all up in one session rather than creating separate tracking systems and reminder processes.

This workflow approach recognizes that your time is valuable and that context-switching between different management interfaces is inefficient. When you can handle all your lifecycle scheduling in one place, you're not just saving time! You're also reducing the mental overhead that comes with juggling multiple systems and processes.

The result is a more proactive approach to case management. Instead of reacting to storage alerts or deadline pressures, you plan transitions based on actual case needs and execute them systematically. Your cases move through their lifecycle stages smoothly, your storage costs stay predictable, and you're not constantly playing catch-up with administrative tasks.

Chapter 4: How to Easily Address the Complexities of Archiving Relativity Workspaces

Archiving a Relativity workspace should be straightforward, but anyone who's actually done it knows better. The process involves multiple steps, each with its own potential for complications, and the stakes are high enough that you can't afford to get it wrong.

The multi-step requirements start with running reports to determine if a Matter is even ready for archiving. You check activity levels, review retention requirements, and confirm that all necessary work has been completed. But the reporting is just the beginning.

Before you can archive anything, communication becomes critical. Clients need to be notified about what is happening to their data. Team members require confirmation that archiving won't impact ongoing work or future access needs. Project managers need assurance that the timing won't conflict with other case activities.

The risk of inadvertent case disruption is always present. Archive something too early, and you might need expensive restoration processes. Miss a communication step, and you could end up with frustrated clients or team members who suddenly can't access the information that they need.

This is where the traditional approach becomes particularly stressful. You're making decisions that affect multiple stakeholders based on reports that might not capture every nuance of case activity. It's a responsibility that keeps many legal professionals up at night, wondering if they've missed something important.

CaseFlow's automated stakeholder notification system completely changes this dynamic. Instead of you having to remember who needs to be informed about what, the system automatically identifies inactive Relativity Matters based on individual configurations that match data retention rules for each client and Matter.

But here's the crucial part: Before archiving happens, CaseFlow notifies all relevant stakeholders as a safety net. If someone realizes that a case shouldn't be archived yet, they can stop the process with a single click via the notification, which resets the timer and prevents any disruption.

This one-click prevention option is brilliant in its simplicity, as it eliminates the need for complicated approval workflows or manual intervention processes. Instead, stakeholders can simply indicate that a case needs to remain active, and the system handles the rest, updating schedules and maintaining access without any additional coordination effort.

The transformation that this creates in your archiving process is substantial. Instead of archiving being a high-stress, high-coordination activity, it becomes a background process that only requires attention when exceptions occur. Your retention rules are being followed consistently, stakeholders are kept informed automatically, and you have built-in safeguards against premature archiving.

Chapter 5: How to Overcome the Challenge of Identifying Inactive Relativity Cases for Efficient Management

One of the most time-consuming aspects of Relativity case management is simply figuring out what needs attention. When you're managing high volumes of Matters, each with varying activity patterns and requirements, identifying which cases are truly inactive becomes a detective exercise that can consume hours of your week. After all, different clients have different definitions of what constitutes "active" work. Some Matters involve steady, daily activity. Others have bursts of intense work followed by long quiet periods. Still others sit dormant for months before suddenly requiring immediate attention due to new developments or legal requirements.

The variety of client agreements and retention requirements makes this even more challenging. What appears to be an inactive case may actually need to remain in an active state due to client-specific requirements that you agreed to months ago.

Traditional approaches to this challenge usually involve running regular activity reports and manually reviewing the results against client files and retention schedules. It's the kind of work that's critically important and mind-numbingly tedious. If you miss something, you could end up with storage cost overruns or compliance issues. However, the manual review process is so time intensive that it often gets pushed off until it becomes urgent.

This is where CaseFlow's monitoring approach makes a real difference. By continuously watching your entire Relativity instance, it can provide the visibility needed to automatically identify Matters that are appropriate for lifecycle transitions.

The key is in the configuration capabilities for defining “activity.” Instead of using generic metrics that might not reflect your firm's actual work patterns, you can set up configurations that match how your team actually uses Relativity. This means the system can accurately distinguish between cases that are genuinely inactive and those that are just in quiet phases.

The accurate reporting of inactive Matters that results from this approach eliminates much of the guesswork from your lifecycle management decisions. Instead of making judgment calls based on limited information, you're working with activity data that's been analyzed against your specific criteria.

This shift from manual detective work to automated monitoring frees up a significant amount of time in your schedule. More importantly, it enhances confidence in your management decisions. When you know that activity monitoring is happening continuously and accurately, you can focus on making strategic decisions rather than gathering and analyzing data.

Chapter 6: How to Bypass the Difficult and Manual Decision-Making of Assigning Data Lifecycle Stages

The final piece of the manual management puzzle is perhaps the most complex: matching data retention rules to individual client requirements while making consistent decisions about lifecycle stage assignments. It's the kind of work that requires you to be part data analyst, part contract specialist, and part project manager all at once.

Every client relationship brings its own set of retention requirements and data-handling preferences. Some clients want aggressive archiving to minimize costs. Others require extended retention periods for regulatory compliance. Different clients have specific requirements regarding data location, access controls, or deletion procedures that impact how you manage their matters throughout the lifecycle stages. A routine contract review may follow standard retention practices, but a major litigation matter might require extended active periods, followed by long-term archival retention.

Manual decision-making in this environment is prone to errors and inconsistencies. You might handle similar cases differently depending on when you make the decision, what else is competing for your attention, or how clearly you recall specific client requirements. The cognitive load of tracking all these variables while making case-by-case decisions is simply too much for most people to handle consistently.

CaseFlow's intelligent Matter identification system addresses this by automating stage transitions based on configured rules that can be tailored to individual client and Matter requirements. You don’t have to remember and apply dozens of different retention policies, as the system maintains those rules and applies them automatically.

The flexibility to adapt to different retention agreements is built into the system architecture. You can configure general rules that apply across your instance, client-specific rules that override the general defaults, and even Matter-specific rules for exceptional cases.

An automated approach to lifecycle stage assignment eliminates the decision fatigue associated with manual management, and it ensures consistency in how similar cases are handled. After all, your client agreements are being followed reliably, your retention policies are being applied consistently, and you're not spending mental energy on routine classification decisions.

With CaseFlow’s automated approach to case management, you’ll instantly notice the reduction in the time investment and stress level associated with lifecycle management. Your cases will progress through the appropriate stages based on their actual characteristics, rather than your availability to review and classify them.

Try CaseFlow for Smooth, Automated Case Management

The transformation from manual to automated Relativity case management isn't just about saving time, though you'll certainly get your evenings and weekends back. With CaseFlow, the time savings from automated monitoring will be combined with cost reductions from effective lifecycle management. Compliance improvements from consistent rule application will work alongside stress reduction by eliminating manual coordination requirements.

But perhaps the most significant change is moving from a reactive to a proactive management approach. Instead of responding to storage alerts, deadline pressures, or client complaints, you're working with systems that anticipate needs and address them before they become problems. Your Relativity environment will become a strategic asset rather than an administrative burden.

The practical impact shows up in multiple ways. Your storage costs become predictable and optimized, your compliance with client retention requirements becomes systematic and reliable, and your team's productivity improves because they're not constantly being interrupted by data management crises. What’s not to love? Most importantly, you regain control over your professional time and energy. The hours that you've been spending on manual lifecycle management can be redirected toward higher-value activities, such as case strategy, client development, or simply a healthier work-life balance.

Your next step is to evaluate whether your current manual approach is truly serving your law firm's needs or whether it's time to explore how automated solutions can transform your data lifecycle management from a constant challenge into a competitive advantage. Try CaseFlow today and experience instant relief.

Ready to take control of your Relativity data lifecycle and eliminate unnecessary costs and wasted time? CaseFlow provides the automation that you need to proactively manage your Relativity storage, seamlessly transitioning cases through Repository, Cold Storage, and Archive based on your specific requirements. Don't let manual processes bog you down; see how CaseFlow can save your law firm time and money. Contact us today, and discover the power of automated Relativity data lifecycle management.