Custodians of ESI are ranked depending upon the involvement of the custodians with the ESI. The term weights of terms are enhanced based upon the custodian ranking. More particularly, terms appearing in items of the ESI having a high calculated weight, i.e., for which important custodians were involved, are given more term weight than terms appearing in items having a low calculated weight, i.e., for which less important custodians were involved. This optimizes the e-discovery by allowing an early decision to be made of whether to settle the matter or to continue with the review process.