Electronic Document Collection: What You Need to Consider

Document collection during litigation is often an expensive and time-consuming process. With the right approach, though, electronic document collection has the potential to both speed up and reduce the expense of this all-important process. With that said, there’s a lot that goes into successful electronic document collection, and here are some of the best practices that you will certainly want to follow:

To start, it’s essential to thoroughly analyze your project to pinpoint the primary issues in the case, the type of data that you will need to collect, and the sources where that data will come from. Afterward, you will need to confirm that a legal hold notice has been sent to all the potential custodians and to the third parties whose data you will be collecting.

Because the storage and data deletion practices  can vary dramatically per organization, it’s important to work closely with the key players within the company’s IT department to determine their data retention practices, confirm that data deletion has been halted completely, and begin laying the groundwork for collecting the data needed. Requesting a data map is also an excellent way to stay as organized and informed as possible through the electronic document collection process.

From here, you will want to begin developing your data collection plan and data collection methods. This process involves determining which tools will be best suited for collecting and preserving relevant data, developing and negotiating an ESI agreement, and determining if a forensic collection and analysis will be necessary.

While often overlooked, electronic document collection can certainly play a major role in the outcome of a case and in determining how much time and money your firm ultimately has to spend. By following proven electronic document collection practices and procedures, though, you can ensure that you collect all the vital information you need while still keeping both your budget and time allotted as low as possible.