| Early case assessment and fixed cost | | | | information is a competitive advantage in the |
| eDiscovery are two areas in legal risk | | | | world of legal wrangling.' |
| management that require specific attention. | | | | |
| Fixed cost eDiscovery is designed to address | | | | The competitive advantage presents itself |
| the financial risk associated with large | | | | because the legal process is full of gray |
| legal cases. For additional information on | | | | areas. We know, through our interview |
| eDiscovery go to The outcome of fixed cost | | | | series, that legal counsel will expand the |
| eDiscovery is reduced exposure to the cost | | | | scope of any information based activity. |
| and time spent reviewing and analyzing the | | | | Understanding ones capabilities, custodians |
| data after a legal case is underway. Early | | | | and case information ahead of a |
| case assessment is a process that can reduce | | | | meet-and-confer meeting can mean the |
| legal risk exposure by offering a necessary | | | | difference between 10 terabytes of |
| view into the case information, i.e. | | | | information and 10 gigabytes of information, |
| custodians, context, third-parties, etc. The | | | | or roughly 600 million individual pages |
| latter is a legal risk competitive advantage; | | | | versus 600,000 individual pages. Legal |
| the former is simply cost containment. | | | | counsel can use the fore knowledge gained |
| | | | through early case assessment to steer the |
| Early case assessment is done by an | | | | meet-and-confer meeting to their advantage, |
| organization to manage the organizations | | | | as opposed to sharing their complete |
| legal risk exposure. Early case assessment | | | | capability. |
| (ECA) can be considered the artillery in the | | | | |
| armory that legal counsel takes to their | | | | Fixed cost eDiscovery can become a liability |
| meet-confer meetings. ECA includes | | | | for some companies because the opposing |
| information about custodians, context and | | | | counsel could use the published financial |
| concepts and will help legal counsel manage | | | | information their advantage. For example, if |
| the outcome of the meet-and-confer meetings. | | | | you told the opposing counsel you used Huron |
| However, it is not supposed to be this way. | | | | Consulting V3locity, they would know the cost |
| | | | per document page is about .25cents. On the |
| According to The Honorable Judge Peter Flynn | | | | contrary, if you used services from KPMG, a |
| of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chancery | | | | very guarded company, then your opposition |
| Division, Illinois, Meet-and-confer meeting's | | | | would have little or no information. In |
| are supposed to be about putting your IT | | | | legal, the less information your opponent |
| cards on the table, what one can and cannot | | | | has, the better off you are. |
| do with respect to data, data types, | | | | |
| collections, preservations, data | | | | Using commodity based early case assessment |
| transformations, etc. Judge Flynn responded | | | | tools may introduce legal risk your company |
| to a question related to guarded sharing of | | | | may not want to manage. For example, if the |
| IT capability during meet-and-confer meetings | | | | opposing counsel has foreknowledge of the |
| during last weeks live Panel Discussion on | | | | products you use, such as Autonomy/Aungate, |
| Document Review Acceleration, hosted by Epiq | | | | Attenex or Clearwell Systems, they know your |
| Systems. He responded saying it was "Flat | | | | capability to identify concepts, custodians, |
| dead wrong, sanctionable." According to | | | | etc. Using software to create legal leverage |
| Judge Flynn, guarding IT and ECA information | | | | without sharing to the world how you do it, |
| during meet-and-confers is probably illegal. | | | | can improve your competitive advantage in the |
| His response and the participant question | | | | early phases of litigation. |
| make it clear that 'the guarding of | | | | |