Government e-discovery trends

Posted by Mark Brousseau

The chief information officer increasingly is joining the chief council in setting e-Discovery strategy within government organizations. That's according to a survey by USIS, an Altegrity company, conducted among government leaders from the federal e-Discovery community.

Among the other findings of the survey:

• Information management, data collection, and producing discoverable results in a timely manner are major concerns.

• More than one-third of respondents said the preservation and collection stage of electronic data discovery (EDD) needs the most improvement.

• Organizations that place a strong emphasis on the EDD process and strategy tend to have better e-Discovery processes.

• Among respondents whose organizations do not place an emphasis on the EDD process, not a single one reported being satisfied with their e-Discovery process.

“This survey reinforces how important it is to have good information management practices in place for the e-Discovery program and the burden it can place on a team when those practices simply aren’t there,” notes Michael Santelli, president of USIS’ Information Management Division (LABAT). “Being proactive about managing data can also save money. It is not uncommon to hear that the cost of one litigation would have paid for the technology and services to better manage the data.”

What do you think?