Most legal departments are looking to slash external e-discovery spending and bring such operations in-house, according to the 3rd annual Study of Effective Legal Spend Management conducted by the Blickstein Group and Exterro Inc. The study surveyed legal directors, in-house attorneys and e-discovery and legal operations professional at 69 small to large U.S. organizations across a variety of industries, including technology, financial service, manufacturing and energy.

The study found that a majority of responding organizations, 57%, budgeted $1 million or less on e-discovery in 2019. On the high end, 8% budgeted over $5 million. For one-third of companies, this year’s budget remained flat from last year, compared to the 30% that said it deceased and 39% for whom it increased.