A point person could make eDiscovery go smoothly

In a recent Information Week article, Andrew Conry-Murray looked at ways to ease the pain around eDiscovery. As I wrote in last week's Editor's Corner, "Could ECM save the American justice system? [1]," Ralph Losey, an experienced litigator and eDiscovery expert indicated that most companies were hopelessly unprepared to deal with eDiscovery requests. Most companies will face one at some point and larger organizations are sure to face multiple lawsuits.

With the costs related to eDiscovery going up Conry-Murray suggests an ounce of prevention could be worth a pound of cure. He writes: "One key component to the smooth operation of these teams is a liaison who coordinates the technical and legal requirements of discovery efforts. In some cases, this liaison may be a tech-savvy paralegal or attorney, but often it's an IT pro."

Whoever you get to do this, having someone inside the organization who can deal with eDiscovery requirements, educate the masses and help everyone understand how important it is to do work before the paperwork arrives, could help prevent some of the problems Losey described in my post.

It's a pretty good bet you will be sued and if you are, it makes a lot of sense to have someone who has been in charge, who understands the range of content across your organization and who can help make the process more efficient and less costly.

For more information:
- see the Information Week article [2]