Good eDiscovery starts with the basics: effective records
and information management to reduce risk, complexity
and costs across the organization. add to the mix interdisciplinary teams of IT, Legal and Records Management
working together and you’ve got a strong foundation that
integrates information management best practices with a
smart, proactive eDiscovery strategy.
MANY CORPORATIONS ENGAGE
in high-risk behavior by failing to
change their eDiscovery process
Good eDiscovery starts with a very basic premise: practicing effective records and information management in
order to reduce risk, complexity and costs across the organization. The high cost of eDiscovery is directly related to
expanding masses of unstructured information and data
stores. Identification; collection; preservation; processing; review; production: the more information eligible for
discovery, the higher the costs — and risks — of every
eDiscovery stage. Retaining information no longer than it
is required for regulatory, operational or legal purposes can
reduce its volume, leading to more effective and efficient
discovery. It is a simple, compelling equation.
Nowhere is this truer than with email. Regardless of
the kind of business an organization conducts, business
records include email. And once an email (or an attachment) is requested as evidence, it’s considered an official
business record — whether your organization declared it
a record or not. Email comprises the majority of discoverable electronic data, and accounts for the majority of all
eDiscovery costs. A proven method for reducing the cost
of reviewing email is to institute a policy with supporting
procedures and technology to classify email and retain it
in an archive for as long as is required.
Records and information management policies, including records retention schedules, must be updated to remain
current with organizational, operational and technological
changes, in addition to new regulations that guide how to
handle information. Be especially careful to consistently
follow retention schedules, as opposing counsel is fond of
portraying records deletion as “selective destruction.” If you
have properly preserved records in the face of impending
lawsuits, but can prove that earlier records destruction conformed to your policy, then this should not hurt your case.
