eDiscovery is the process of reviewing electronic files for litigation. It is essential because it can help protect trade secrets, ensure compliance, and reduce costs.
ESI (Electronically Stored Information) includes emails, instant messaging chats, documents, accounting databases, CAD/CAM files, social media, and the web. It also includes metadata, which is data about other data.
Cost
Why is eDiscovery important to a company? eDiscovery solutions can help organizations reduce the risk of legal liability. For example, eDiscovery solutions can help organizations identify and preserve potentially relevant documents, which can help organizations avoid costly litigation. The cost of eDiscovery is a significant concern for corporate legal departments. With soaring discovery costs, legal teams have been forced to find ways to reduce the expense while meeting all the demands of litigation and regulatory investigations. While there is no easy solution, many steps can be taken to manage costs. Investing in proactive information governance policies, early case assessment tools, technology-assisted review, and utilizing cloud solutions can help control legal spending.
One of the most significant drivers of eDiscovery cost is processing and culling. To mitigate these costs, pooling data for processing and limiting the volume of ESI sent to outside counsel is essential. It is also important to avoid unnecessary data collection and storage and to utilize a platform that allows for easy file conversions and sharing between providers (cloud to cloud).
Another way to cut eDiscovery costs is to use advanced search tools and technology-assisted review to limit the volume of ESI for review. This can significantly reduce EDI costs and time spent reviewing. Additionally, companies should regularly delete redundant, outdated, and trivial data, including customer lists, project notes, and chats on social media and Slack channels. This can dramatically reduce the cost of eDiscovery and eliminate costly errors such as spoliation claims. These steps can turn discovery from a budget burden into a revenue stream for the company.
Time
eDiscovery is incredibly time-consuming, especially in large organizations that deal with several cases yearly. Even in less frequent circumstances, eDiscovery can take months or even years. The main reason is that there are so many electronic documents to sort through. In addition, legal teams must consider compliance and privacy issues while minimizing costs.
One way to reduce the time required to complete eDiscovery is to streamline the review phase. This can be accomplished through advanced analytics and predictive coding, which helps attorneys prioritize and categorize documents. It can also help reduce the amount of documents that need to be reviewed manually by attorneys.
Another way to reduce eDiscovery time is to implement a robust information governance framework. This will ensure that the ESI is collected and preserved consistently and defensibly. It will also make identifying and redacting privileged or confidential information easier.
Finally, it is essential to establish clear goals before beginning a discovery project. This will help avoid costly mistakes that can delay or even derail the case. For example, suppose a company reacts to an eDiscovery request without a strategy. In that case, it can lead to sub-optimal scope agreements during the meet and confer process and result in costly rework downstream.
Compliance
A successful eDiscovery process is a complex undertaking that must be performed by established strategy and best practices. This helps ensure that projects are carried out defensibly if legal challenges arise. It also provides transparency and visibility into the process.
Organizations often have a great deal of information that is discoverable during litigation, audits, and investigations. That’s why it’s essential to set up a proper governance structure, including processes for identifying relevant custodians and locations and establishing procedures for preserving ESI promptly.
Additionally, businesses should implement processes for creating a comprehensive metadata collection. This can help legal teams quickly locate and review the most relevant documents, reducing costs and time to resolution. It’s also important to implement tools such as predictive coding and computer-assisted review (CAR) to streamline the processing of ESI. This can dramatically cut the number of documents that need to be reviewed by attorneys, which in turn cuts a company’s eDiscovery expenses.
Noncompliance with regulations can have significant consequences, such as fines, loss of market share, or even a business shut-down. Organizations must stay abreast of regulatory changes to mitigate risk and invest in training to keep employees informed. They must also carefully screen partners and vendors to ensure they comply with regulations.
Security
In an age where businesses are constantly inundated with eDiscovery requests for various data types, security is one of the most important considerations. Because eDiscovery involves digital information, the potential for security breaches is much higher. The good news is that eDiscovery services providers are used to discussing security with their clients and putting in place controls that help protect this sensitive information.
ESI is any electronically stored information (including emails, instant messaging chats, documents, accounting databases, images, video, CAD software files, and Websites) relevant to legal proceedings. During the eDiscovery process, attorneys identify relevant ESI and put it on a legal hold. The certified professionals search it, use analytical search techniques, and convert it into a usable courtroom presentation or discovery format.
The amount of data involved in eDiscovery can be overwhelming, and it takes significant time and resources to search through it manually. Fortunately, the latest eDiscovery technology can reduce the amount of ESI that needs to be reviewed by using predictive coding and other advanced analytics tools. The result is significant savings in both collection and review costs.
Increasing the efficiency of your eDiscovery processes will also reduce the risk of costly errors and delays. In addition, establishing a formal eDiscovery policy will ensure that you can respond to a request for data quickly and effectively.
Arman Ali, respects both business and technology. He enjoys writing about new business and technical developments. He has previously written content for numerous SaaS and IT organizations. He also enjoys reading about emerging technical trends and advances.
