Four Pillars of Defensible Collection Plans

From QDiscovery:

By Helen Geib, QDiscovery

In the eDiscovery lifecycle, collection is the stage of copying electronically stored information in order to make it available to the legal team for review and production. Identification determines the scope of collection while preservation ensures that relevant ESI is there when it’s needed. Collection follows and depends on identification and preservation. There are four pillars of defensible collection plans.

Collection is simple in theory. In practice, it’s frequently complicated, difficult or expensive – if not all three. Litigants have a duty to collect potentially responsive ESI, including metadata. They also must avoid spoliation of evidence, which can occur when ESI is destroyed or altered during collection. On the other hand, the cost of the collection is important to the bottom line. The expense of discovery should be proportional to the value of the case.

The fundamental goal at this stage is to make the collection both defensible and cost-effective. Defensibility and cost-effectiveness are closely tied together. Each depends on selecting the optimal processes and technology tools.

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