A strong foundation for your eDiscovery projects is integral to being successful in all your eDiscovery endeavors. Mastering this requires focus on establishing an information governance framework, utilizing the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) and employing a modern eDiscovery solution.
Read on to learn more about our three core things to remember when setting a firm foundation for all your eDiscovery projects.
Establishing an Information Governance Framework
Information governance is the management of an organization’s creation, usage, storage and disposition of information, data and records. It is incredibly important for your litigation preparedness, as it aids in:
- Data management- Know what, where and how your organization manages information and data
- Cutting costs- Save on your eDiscovery costs
- Compliance- Comply with data management and eDiscovery laws
You will need to evaluate what information and data you have, where you are storing it, and how it is being stored and managed to establish an information governance framework that works in your favor.
Look to your current IT infrastructure, data management and security systems, and regulation compliance to identify what, where and how your information is being stored and managed. These are key places you will find relevant information for your eDiscovery process and fix any hiccups within your current workflow.
Proper information governance will also prevent over-collecting electronically stored information (ESI) by reducing the amount of relevant data all together, allowing you to more efficiently determine your sources of ESI and lower your eDiscovery costs
Lastly, your information governance should encompass any federal data and eDiscovery regulations with which your organization needs to comply. Some federal laws of note include:
- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 1 ensures litigious proceedings are conducted in a collaborative, efficient and fair manner.
- FRCP 16 definitively outlines the course of eDiscovery for a case and sets a timeline for eDiscovery to be fulfilled.
- FRCP 26 reduces the scope of an organization’s eDiscovery by requiring all discovery requests to be reasonable and relevant to the case.
- FRCP 34 governs the matter of eDiscovery production and adds onto FRCP 26 to require specifics and timeliness for requests.
- FRCP 37 ensures an organization preserved and produced ESI in a reasonable manner.
- Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) 502b states that inadvertent disclosure of privileged information is not waived if the holder took reasonable steps to prevent disclosure and made an effort to rectify the disclosure.
- FRE 502d mandates that the production of documents protecting privileged information does not waive protection during legal proceedings.
An agile and active information governance framework that manages your information, data and records from creation to disposal is a necessity to founding a firm foundation for your eDiscovery projects.
Utilizing EDRM
EDRM is a partner of Venio Systems and a popular framework used by many legal professions to enhance their eDiscovery workflows and projects. There are two sides to EDRM: the left side that focuses on the process—information governance, identification, preservation and collection—and the right side that focuses on data—processing, review, analysis, production and presentation.
Here is a breakdown of the nine stages of EDRM
- Information Governance: implementing a plan to reduce risk and lower costs
- Identification: identifying your sources for relevant ESI, such as mobile and personal devices, and cloud and on-premises systems
- Preservation: includes the legal hold of any relevant ESI and its protection against spoliation
- Collection: collects all relevant ESI for further use, including through early case assessment
- Processing: culling of ESI and formatting it into more suitable forms for review and analysis
- Review: evaluating ESI for relevance and privilege to develop facts for cases and investigations
- Analysis: evaluating ESI for content, specifically looking at patterns in topic, people and discussion
- Production: delivering ESI to stakeholders
- Presentation: displaying ESI to an audience, such as during trials, depositions, hearings, etc., to validate claims and persuade the audience
Information governance is a vital stage in EDRM and is noted as having its own reference model, the Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM), IGRM governs the intersection of each department and their respective governance needs to balance value, risks and costs
EDRM simplifies the administration of roles throughout the eDiscovery process. You can easily identify which department will be responsible for which stage of EDRM to maximize your team’s productivity.
Bring It All Together With A Robust eDiscovery Platform
The final, essential piece to setting a firm foundation for your eDiscovery projects is a modern eDiscovery platform that is capable of helping you achieve all of your goals and reach your objectives. Your eDiscovery vendor should:
- Optimized workflow- Optimize your time and costs
- Data storage- Handle new and surplus data and metadata from the social media boom and the Internet of Things, and store high volumes of data
- Accuracy- Sift through high volumes of data with accuracy and precision
- Automated tools- Utilize AI-powered automated tools, like CAL and TAR, to enhance your search, review and presentation capabilities
Venio Systems provides end-to-end eDiscovery software that is easy, accurate and fast. We leverage AI-powered predictive coding tools (CAL and TAR) to process 10x faster and produce 90% less data for you to review.
Our eDiscovery services optimize your team productivity tenfold with a unified system so all your tools are in one place.
Download our Benefits of an Integrated eDiscovery Solution whitepaper to learn more and build a firm foundation for your eDiscovery projects.
