What’s the difference between documents and material in discovery?

Discovery has traditionally meant “document dumps” - emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, and transcripts. But this framing is outdated. The real value isn’t the container (the document) but the material inside - facts, statements, admissions, and contradictions that drive legal strategy. Shifting your focus from documents to material makes discovery faster, smarter, and more targeted.

Key Takeaways

• Documents are just containers; material is the legal substance inside.
• Material-based discovery works across text, audio, video, and chat logs.
• Focusing on material helps you extract what matters (e.g., admissions, timelines).
• Matey AI surfaces key material automatically - saving hours of manual review.
• Teams that adopt this mindset complete reviews in a fraction of the time.

Why does thinking in “documents” limit discovery?

Legal professionals are trained to handle discovery as sets of paginated, Bates-stamped files. But with modern data sources - Slack, Teams, cloud platforms, video calls- the “document” mindset breaks down.

• Documents ≠ Evidence → They only package the evidence.
• Information overload → Thousands of irrelevant lines obscure what matters.
• Inefficient workflows → Reviewing full transcripts when only a few statements matter.

How does a material-first approach work?

Material means focusing on the legally relevant pieces of evidence, regardless of format:

• Deposition transcripts → Search for all admissions of “awareness” rather than scanning 300 pages.
• Audio & video → Extract the two minutes of relevant speech from a 45-minute file.
• Email threads → Find the single line that changes a case strategy.
• Chat logs → Surface contradictions or policy violations in real time.

How does this save time in practice?

Instead of asking: “What’s in these 12 PDFs?” ask:
“Where is every statement that shows when the issue was first reported?”

Matey AI helps:

• Surface statements, admissions, and contradictions across formats.
• Summarize long transcripts and recordings.
• Cut review time by more than half.

Real-world example: Faster review with Matey AI

A paralegal using Matey reviewed:

• 6 deposition transcripts
• 4 hours of interviews
• 3,500+ pages of Slack logs

Matey extracted:

• All admissions of hazard awareness
• Mentions of specific dates and locations
• Contradictions in witness statements

Result: 2–3 days of review condensed into under 4 hours.

Bottom line: Why should legal teams shift to material?

Documents are formats. Material is evidence. By shifting your mindset, you:

• Avoid wasted time scanning irrelevant lines.
• Empower smarter, evidence-driven strategy.
• Leverage AI tools like Matey to find what matters, not just where it’s stored.

Matey AI is built on this principle. We help legal teams discover material across text, audio, video, and chat - so you work faster and more effectively.

FAQs

What is material in discovery?
Material is the legally relevant substance - facts, admissions, contradictions—inside a document, audio, or video file.

Why is a document-based approach outdated?
Because modern evidence includes chat logs, cloud data, and recordings. A “documents only” mindset misses critical non-document sources.

How does Matey AI identify material?
Matey uses AI to detect key statements, contradictions, and timelines across all evidence types, surfacing them instantly.

Can this save my team time?
Yes. Teams using Matey regularly cut review time by more than 50%.

Is material-based discovery accepted in legal workflows?
Yes. Courts care about relevant evidence, not file formats. Material aligns directly with evidentiary value.