First, Wrestle the Gator in the Boat

http://ow.ly/7kbvY

An article by Greg Buckles on the eDiscovery Journal website at ediscoveryjournal.com

This article discusses the need to try and manage electronically stored information from an enterprise level, and the need to make a reasonable effort.

The author states, "A sharp client recently said, “Let’s wrestle the alligator in the boat before we tackle the rest of them.” That pithy statement allowed the rest of his team to let go of the ancillary challenges that kept distracting everyone from the immediate goal that we were there to resolve. Face it, enterprise information governance or true discovery maturity is an unattainable goal. That does not mean that we should give up. Instead it means that we must strive to identify and prioritize the initiatives that we CAN attain so that we stay within the corporation’s idea of acceptable risk, cost and capabilities. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ definition of litigation readiness."

The article provides advice and guidance on how to begin addressing some of the complex issues that pertain to information governance, regulatory compliance and litigation readiness.  The article states, "A maturity gap analysis is a great place to start. That is a fancy way of saying that you list your known pain points and hopefully get some outside perspective to help you see the issues that you have not acknowledged."

The author makes an important point regarding information management, "As you build your list of gaps and goals, realistically assess the probability and potential cost of the not tackling them. The ‘reasonable effort’ standard is a constantly moving target. Right now, the bench seems to have focused sanctions on preservation and collection (search) diligence over processing and review errors. The market push for some kind of machine assisted review seems to be a leading indicator that relevance accuracy may attract attention from the bench soon, especially if predictive coding providers keep packing events with outspoken judicial speakers. If legal is driving your eDiscovery initiatives, then you will usually prioritize goals that minimize the greatest risk for the least effort/cost. On the other hand, IT information governance initiatives will prioritize the greatest business benefit or return on investment (ROI)."