8 E-Discovery Tips For Small Firms and Companies

By doing your research upfront, you can deal with e-discovery without breaking your budget. There are a number of ways that you can cut costs and avoid significant financial set back. Below are nine tips that can help you save money – while still meeting all of your e-discovery needs and responsibilities.

• Streamline your e-discovery operations. 
• Pare your procedures down to what is absolutely necessary. Sometimes with e-discovery, services or products might appear necessary initially, but prove to be superfluous upon more closely looking into the process.
• Become familiar with your options
• To find the most effective ways of handling ESI and electronic discovery procedures, you should familiarize yourself with the technology and processes available. You can acquire this familiarity by browsing through Internet articles on the subject, following blogs, and perusing the websites of service and product providers.
• Consult experts
• In the long run, it might prove better to seek the advice and expertise of a professional rather than taking the risk by handling e-discovery matters yourself. You could find that you’ve overlooked a particular electronic discovery need or that you’ve purchased a piece of software or equipment that doesn’t properly meet your needs.
• Understand the process and how it relates to your needs.
• This is another aspect of electronic discovery that often takes a lot of research. Knowing the e-discovery process and applying it to your unique situation will help you make more informed decisions when purchasing services and/or solutions.
• Divide and conquer
• Leverage the combined knowledge of your firm by holding a meeting to deal with the electronic discovery issues at hand. Assign stakeholders research duties into particular solutions and products, become knowledgable and share the knowledge among the team.
• Keep up with the news and note electronic discovery changes
• Electronic discovery and ESI are still somewhat new and developing procedures, and rulings and regulations regarding electronic discovery are still changing on a regular basis. If you want to minimize your electronic discovery costs, it is imperative that you are aware of any new development in electronic discovery so you can discontinue a function if you no longer are responsible for it.
• Listen to your IT staff
• The team who best understands electronic discovery and the demands it places on your firm might just be your IT staff. They will be familiar with searching for data in your firm’s computers and they will be able to critique a package of e-discovery software on its merits and flaws.
• Determine the best production format for your situation
• When you are in position to dictate the production format, consider which is best. You may be most familiar with one to two types of formats – but there are other options that can result in efficiencies and savings.. Weigh the pros against the cons and go with the option that gives you an advantage. 

Although electronic discovery can place a burden on a firm, there are many ways to reduce costs and simplify the process. Being vigilant and putting sufficient time and effort into researching the possibilities can help you find affordable and practical electronic discovery solutions. The tips explained above are just some basic ways to save time and money in electronic discovery – but there are obviously many others.