4 Factors Driving Email Discovery & How to Save Your Firm Legal Fees

email-discovery-factorsDiscovery is a legal process that gives lawyers the right to acquire any records that pertain to a legal case.

Legal discovery has moved from the traditional definition of collecting paper records to include the discovery of electronic records, including email – otherwise known as “e-discovery.”

As a result, it is no longer optional for a business to be unprepared for e-discovery. There is too much at stake. However, few organizations are effectively managing email so that it is discoverable.

Four Factors Driving e-Discovery

  1. Increased Use of Electronic Documents in Business: in today’s corporate environment, more than 90% of data is stored in an electronic format. Legal teams are interested in relevant material stored anywhere but are especially interested in the ever-growing digital realm.
  2. Revised Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP): the rules that govern discovery vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In the United States, federal courts use the FRCP as the guideline for discovery in civil lawsuits. Under the latest revision of the FRCP, information contained in conversations, electronic mail, and other types of business records are all discoverable. Having a retention policy is essential for defending yourself because the policy determines what types of records you are required to store.
  3. Increased Public Awareness through High-Profile Cases: Morgan Stanley was fined tens of millions of dollars for such poor implementation of an email management strategy and its inability to produce all of the records it was ordered to produce during the discovery proceedings.
  4. Improved Attorney Education in the Field of e-Discovery: attorneys are now much better educated about what they can ask for and what they may be able to get in litigation.

How to Save Your Firm Legal Fees

  1. Have a well-documented email retention policy and ensure that it’s being followed.
  2. Know what types of data are available in your firm.
  3. Know how to retrieve the data, be able to retrieve it and be able to show the judge the thoroughness of your efforts.
  4. Get guidance from your legal department about which types of data are covered and which ones are not.
  5. Educate your legal team on technology issues.

Ultimately, you need to have the right email management software that makes tagging, tracking and archiving of emails easy for end-users and IT. This is exactly the purpose of Email Manager and we why developed it.