Manage ESI Dangers With Targeted Collections

http://ow.ly/7dmt6

An article by Dave Walton posted on The Legal Intelligencer website.

The article discusses targeted collections, and states that they will be the answer to keeping eDiscovery costs in check.

The author states, "The future is targeted collections. Preservation is cheap; collection and review is incredibly expensive. Smart clients and lawyers will learn how to use targeted collections as the key to bringing sanity back to their litigation practices."

The article further states, "Moreover, the average gigabyte of data contains about 75,000 pages. Assuming the average review time for an attorney is 200 pages per hour, the review of one GB (i.e., 75,000 pages) can take over 300 hours. Assuming an associate bills at $250 per hour, this means it costs over $78,000 to review one GB of information. This is virtually untenable for clients."

The author additionally states, "...the court "must" limit the frequency or extent of discovery if it determines one of three things:

• The discovery source is unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or can be obtained from some more convenient, less burdensome or less expensive source.

• The party seeking discovery has already had ample opportunity to obtain the information by conducting other types of discovery.

• The expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit."

The author writes that targeted collections help reduce the expense and burden associated with eDiscovery and attorney review during the discovery phase of litigation. The article provides some tactical insight on how, when and why to use targeted collections.

The article further states, "E-discovery is not going to end the world as we know it. The key is going to be the ability to get those cases to trial without going bankrupt due to ESI costs."