The E-Discovery Headache

I saw this article on-line today, Top Ten Reasons e-Discovery is a Major Headache for Most Companies and Lawyers. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, the more I learn about my new job, and the whole areas of electronic discovery and litigation support the more overwhelming it seems. Seriously, if your company was party to litigation tomorrow could you identify all the relevant documents, emails, voice mails, etc.? Would you know where they are stored, who has custody of them and how they could be preserved correctly? Do you even know all the difference places your users could be storing emails and documents? Are they only working local? Do they have a mobile device or laptop, do they work from home, do they use a thumb drive? Do you have policies in place to try and control where things are stored, and for how long?

Under the new federal rules, which most states are more than likely to adopt as well from what I’m reading, when you have what’s called the “meet and confer” with both parties and their attorneys to discuss discovery, you have to be able to answer these questions. I can already see, in dealing with some clients and other businesses where I’ve worked, where this is a logistical nightmare for them, but I’m now seeing exactly how much of a nightmare it is for the attorney representing the business as well. It’s not enough anymore to know the issues of a case, you have to do your due diligence and understand your clients systems and possible issues when it comes to e-discovery. Failure to bring this knowledge to the “meet and confer” can result in sanctions against the attorney!

I will say this though, as I learn more about this, and become expert and bridging that gap between IT and legal representation, I’m feeling pretty good about my job security. 🙂

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