Sep 04, 2007 -- /prbuzz/ --Expert Opinion Editorial: Reduce E-Discovery Costs: Organize Data Before Litigation Starts
By Jill Griset, Helms Mulliss & Wicker PLLC. E-Discovery Lead Counsel
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 5, 2007)— Annually, the lack of policies and procedures assuring easy discovery of all pertinent electronic records is costing companies tens of thousands of dollars in this litigious society. In today’s world, the details of business transactions and negotiations are recorded electronically through e-mails and text messages. Companies of old had clerical staff and warehouses of dedicated to document storage and cross indexing. Today, individual hard drives and network servers perform the function of storage, but lack the ability to properly cross index correspondence.
Companies should consider encouraging, or even requiring, employees to organize their e-mails and other electronic data in folders corresponding with the transactions in which they relate. Organizing e-mails and other data can make it much easier for counsel to retrieve, filter and evaluate data related to transactions at issue reducing costs.
To understand how this works in practice, consider the following scenario: Company A has five employees involved in a transaction that becomes litigious. None of the employees organize their e-mails or electronic data in a way that makes it easy to separate out the data related to the transaction at issue. The lawyers for Company A thus have to pull all of the data off hard and shared drives, and then apply search terms to find the data in question. It would not be unusual for this data to be in the range of 5-10 gigabytes of information. Law firms typically hire a vendor to filter the data and eliminate duplicates at a rate of $1,000 per gigabyte. Thus, the company could easily pay $5,000 to $10,000 prior to data review.
By contrast, suppose Company B (another defendant in the same case) also has five employees involved in the transaction. Company B’s employees, however, have saved the relevant e-mails and electronic data into identifiable folders on their hard drives and on a shared drive. The lawyers for Company B only retrieve those folders related to the transaction at issue, which amount to less than 1 gigabyte of data. The lawyers for Company B still conduct de-duplication at $1,000 per gigabyte, but because the data set is much smaller, the process costs less than $1,000. In addition, the company saves attorney time, as the attorneys do not have to review “false hits,” and instead review only the relevant data pulled from the appropriate folders.
In summary, if companies encourage their employees to organize their data before litigation starts, they can substantially reduce litigation costs later.
The information in this E-Discovery article should not be interpreted as legal advice with respect to specific situations.
For additional information on this or any other e-discovery topic, please contact any member of the E-Discovery Practice Group listed above.
©2007 Helms Mulliss & Wicker, PLLC
About Jill Griset:
Jill Griset joined the firm's litigation group in 1997. She has extensive experience representing national financial institutions and other corporate clients in a wide variety of commercial disputes. She also has broad experience litigating insurance coverage disputes and advising insurance carriers on liability and property claims.
Jill has particular expertise in the area of electronic discovery, with experience representing corporate clients responding to E-discovery requests as well as corporate clients propounding E-discovery. Jill’s corporate clients benefit from her extensive knowledge of:
· the procedures to preserve, identify, and collect electronic and hard copy information;
· the design of electronic filters and searches;
· the appropriate personnel and resources to ensured cost-effectiveness;
· the obligations imposed on parties by the changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure;
· the establishment of review guidelines for document production;
· the creation of a defensible privilege log;
· the production or withholding of metadata; and
· the quality control procedures needed to maintain defensibility of the processes employed and to protect against inadvertent production of privileged documents.
Jill graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before attending law school at the University of Virginia, she worked in Washington D.C. as a legal assistant at a law firm in DuPont Circle specializing in medical malpractice and personal injury claims.
About Helms Mulliss & Wicker:
HMW is recognized as one of America’s Best Law Firms by Corporate Board Member magazine, ranked as a Top Ten Bond Counsel by The Bond Buyer and is named a Go-To Law Firm by Corporate Counsel magazine. The firm employs more than 135 lawyers, 20 of whom have been designated Super Lawyers in the 2007 North Carolina Super Lawyers magazine. HMW focuses on three practice groups: commercial litigation, complex finance and corporate law. Within the practice groups, specialty areas include: government relations, securities, mergers & acquisitions, employer services, private equity and others. The firm represents Fortune 100 companies, the nation’s largest financial institutions as well as many high-growth and start-up companies. Helms Mulliss & Wicker maintains offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington, NC. For additional information, visit www.hmw.com.
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Companies should consider encouraging, or even requiring, employees to organize their e-mails and other electronic data in folders corresponding with the transactions in which they relate.
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