Limiting risks of data self-collection

Many end-clients or stakeholders seek to undertake the process of collecting data and documents for a matter using their own internal systems and resources. At face value there is generally no issue with clients doing this for simple collections. However, there are limitations on the technology and resources available to most end-clients that should be considered. These limitations and other risk factors associated with collecting your own data need to be managed to avoid significant negative time and cost implications, or worse yet, negative impacts on the outcome of your matter.

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Consider

• The experience of those undertaking the collection. While collecting data is often a task given to the IT function not everyone within this team may be able to complete the work to the standard that would be required for a legal or regulatory matter. This includes both their experience executing the collection process and the speed with which they can complete it.

• The limitations on standard software search functions. Many standard office tools that might be used to collect data have limited effective search functions and will not accurately key word search data. Standard search will also miss documents without text, scanned files, zipped files or password protected files. Some eDiscovery providers have technology solutions that can overcome all these limitations.

• The necessity of preserving data integrity. It is a requirement of many legal environments to present a copy of a document as it existed within the end-client’s system. It also requires a clear chain of custody from the point of collection. A failure to preserve this may greatly impact your ability to rely on certain documents or effectively use eDiscovery workflows.

• The impacts of under-collecting. Should there be errors in the collection process or unnecessary steps taken to cull data too early in the process you could miss critical information.

• The impacts of over-collecting. Should the net be cast too wide during the collection process there could be large numbers of irrelevant documents collected which could blow out review timelines and costs.