Preventing an E-Discovery Cost Cascade

Outmoded data collection technology usually results in one of two undesirable outcomes: too much data is collected, or too little. Too little runs the risk of failing to produce required information and consequent additional litigation and/or sanction costs. Producing too much data may reduce those risks to near zero, but, in what the author refers to as a domino effect, typically results in significantly increased costs later in the process when attorneys do their more intensive review.

The author says that currently available “next-generation” technology can avoid both pitfalls. He then briefly reviews the processes and limitations in three traditional collection tools. Manual forensic tools are time-consuming and disruptive, and they typically produce too much information. Network-based forensic collection tools are slow, complicated, and they require continual maintenance and upgrades. “Index-everything” network-based collection tools, sometimes called enterprise search technologies, create a searchable data base in advance of a search over an organization’s entire environment. However, the search can take months or even years and is never complete, and thus is both costly and risky.

According to the author, next-generation technology solves all these problems by using search indices already created by commonly used business applications. This enables rapid targeted information collection at the point of file creation, thus reducing both the number of irrelevant files collected and later downstream costs of close examination. The author advises checking customer references and analyst reports and testing technology on site before making large purchases.