Oce' has an interesting white paper on e-discovery and what I term litigation readiness. You can download the paper here (but you must register, something I don't mind doing). Key findings of the paper include the following:
- Attorneys agree that e-discovery preparedness is one of the most important functions of a corporate legal department (77%)
- Yet less than 50% have implemented any type of e-discovery preparedness via internal processes or technologies. Reasons for this varied, but the most prominent was that it took the lawyers away from case-related activities
- Law firms are developing e-discovery personnel to help their clients with litigation readiness
- Most in-house firms are nervous about working with their IT staff to help with mitigation of e-discovery risks
- 60% of organizations, according to their in-house counsel, lack a fully implemented records management program
- 35% plan to implement a records management program in the next 12 months
Many will be choosing SharePoint as their Records Management system. Many will people who understand the triangle of services: technology, information architecture and business processes. Firms that can deliver these three skill sets will be in high demand.
Small and large organizations alike are in the bull's-eye when it comes to e-discovery. The fact that one in five corporations will be sued this year is no laughing matter. Forget that most of the lawsuits are frivolous. Responding to them still costs time, money, energy and employee attention. The opportunity costs can be significant. Organizing information with a view to mitigating exposure to liability for e-discovery will become a sunk cost that can't be recovered. Yet, if you're one of the 20% who will be sued this year, you'll be glad you undertook such a project.
You can learn more about e-discovery and how to organize information in SharePoint by attending my upcoming seminar on February 15 & 16. If you'd like, you can email me offline (bill@mindsharp.com) to ask questions about this seminar.
Bill English
Mindsharp