The key to ensuring a defensible strategy is to establish a well-thought-out plan and to use the proper team to help execute it. Federal and State courts frown on organizations that embark on the electronic portion of the discovery process without a plan, and those who may have established a plan, but either don’t follow it or abandon it at some point in mid-process.
Spoliation is always a significant concern in litigation. The key to avoiding data spoliation or even the appearance of spoliation is in the maintenance of proper records.
We advocate these steps:
Thorough documentation identifying the metrics of each piece of media collected for preservation purposes.
- A clear and concise chain-of-custody document that tracks the receipt of media, determines who “touched” it and what was done throughout the project lifecycle.
- A report that identifies processed data in addition to data that could not be processed due to corruption, encryption and other issues, as well as quantity of data from culling steps.
- Use of proper searching criteria and the application of search terms are critical to meet the burden of identifying all potentially responsive documents and emails within a data set.
- A proper project close-out process ensuring that all data processed for the matter is cataloged and appropriately archived, all produced materials are maintained according to attorney specifications and all project documentation is organized and archived.
- The application and maintenance of a defensible strategy is critical to ensuring the success of an eDiscovery project. Let UHY Advisors’ team of experienced professionals manage your next matter to demonstrate our tried and tested methodology.