Obtaining a defensible discovery collection is a time-consuming, labor intensive, and cost prohibitive procedure. Not only is it difficult to manage under budgetary restrictions, it is exceedingly more difficult to find the proper personnel and most efficient software to use for e-discovery.

It is imperative to hire a Litigation Support Manager who has experience handling big cases as a first step to managing e-discovery. The experience acquired when in charge of large cases transfers to smaller and mid-sized ones. When defining the discovery collection, it is important to define a date range pertinent to the litigation, determine who the key players are in the events in dispute, request from the business’ IT staff information regarding the means by which the company corresponded and stored the correspondence, determine the location of the data, understand the types of data involved, and define the key terms.

However, when obtaining a defensible discovery collection, it is most prudent to hire a collection expert who can testify at trial as to the methodology of collection used. The software used in collection must be industry standard and the most up-to-date software available. An audit trail is requisite documenting all collection efforts, noting the date, time, and what was collected. A backup file of the collection should always be made of the native files involved. Processing of defensible data should only be handled by experienced litigation support personnel to avoid mishandling the data. If protocols are followed properly during the review and production process, trial exhibits and exhibit lists can be produced efficiently.

To learn more about E-discovery, contact the Managing Partner of Docusource, Connie Philips, and the Docusource Team at (504) 588-2679. Docusource has provided litigation support for over 27 years. Let Docusource save your firm time and money as your E-discovery Management Solution in preparing your cases for litigation today!