What is the primary purpose of coding in document review?

The primary purpose of coding in document review is to categorize documents for better workflow. Coding allows reviewers to assign specific tags or labels to documents based on various criteria such as relevance, privilege, or type. This categorization is essential because it streamlines the review process, enabling teams to organize and manage large volumes of documents more efficiently. By establishing clear categories, documents can be quickly sorted and retrieved, which enhances the overall review efficiency and helps in the identification of key documents relevant to a case.

While other options touch on aspects of document management—such as training new reviewers, preventing duplication, or reducing document counts—these are secondary to the main objective of coding. The ability to categorize documents effectively is foundational to successful document review processes, making it a crucial function in e-discovery and legal proceedings.