Electronic discovery, its costs and risks are things most people would probably prefer not to think about unless forced to after being hit with a lawsuit. The costs and risks can be best handled, however, by taking 10 steps prior to being served, advises Robert D. Brownstone, a lawyer with the firm of Fenwick & West LLP in Silicon Valley.

The first step is implementing a data retention policy, which, Brownstone points out, is really a data destruction policy. "Having less information and knowing what the company has--and where--should enable more effective operations," he writes in a post at Forbes. "An added benefit is shrinkage of the data set subject to processing--and possibly to exposure to an adversary--in response to a future lawsuit, a non-party subpoena in someone else's lawsuit or a government inquiry."

Second, be sure that your IT team is collaborating with the legal department. "If the key in-house lawyer or outside counsel is from Mars and the essential IT leader is from Venus, then use an interplanetary translator to help develop litigation-preparedness program," Brownstone recommends.

Third, have a "litigation hold protocol" in place, so that there is a single individual who is responsible for deciding whether a lawsuit can be reasonably anticipated (thus initiating the hold) and for implementing the hold.

Fourth, put together a team of people to ensure the necessary knowledge, sufficiently powerful IT and written protocols to assist both internal and external individuals in the e-discovery process.

Fifth, be careful to preserve the data that is going to be collected during the process. It's vital that nobody alters the metadata or disrupts the chain-of-custody records.

For more:
- see Robert D. Brownstone's post at Forbes

Related articles:
Be careful what records you destroy
How information governance can improve productivity
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