IBM Acquires PSS Systems

Breaking news from IQPC Oil & Gas. You can find the press release here. With the combination of Symantec taking in LiveOffice last month, industry consolidation seems to be picking up steam.

Here's an interesting excerpt from the article [emphasis mine]:

A recent study by the Compliance, Governance and Oversight Council found that fewer than 25 percent of organizations were able to dispose of data properly because they lacked rigorous legal hold management practices and effective record retention programs. The report also estimates that that costs associated with legal electronic discovery average more than $3 million per case and about 70 percent of information is often needlessly retained.

I do not doubt that electronic discovery can cost, on average, $3 million. With painful manual collection and export to numerous review platforms/counsels the time and fees spend can be enormous. Moving e-discovery in-house is the only way to get a hold of these costs. See how at www.zlti.com.

Avoid the Big House: Bring e-Discovery In-House

Over at Law.com you can find an extensive examination of the recently filed Victor Stanley Inc. v. Creative Pipe Inc ruling. Here's a valuable excerpt [emphasis mine]:

Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm's lengthy opinion in Victor Stanley Inc. v. Creative Pipe Inc., filed Sept. 9, is worth the read... But the opinion is newsworthy because it sets out a harsh remedy for the defendant whom he found had destroyed evidence, lied to the court and dragged out proceedings -- civil contempt, with the defendant facing severe costs and fines or a two-year prison sentence if he fails to pay that fine. 

The court's focus upon and analysis of the costs -- in time, money, effort, and expertise -- of spoliation and dilatory tactics to the justice system is both spot on and timely.

What this has done is to highlight how important it is to follow a defensible discovery collection process and reinforce the fact that spoliation can directly lead to jail time. The importance of a legally defensible and thorough discovery process cannot be overstated.

It is not just one tool which can be a panacea, but the build-out of an entire data management process which will reduce risk. The industry standard, Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), serves as a decent guide:



The EDRM, although a good guide, can be limiting, as its flow does not represent the continuous nature of many discovery processes. At ITBusinessEdge I found another way to look at managing the process:

This visualization, unlike the one-way EDRM, views information management and discovery as part of a continuing process. I believe that this is much more accurate, as discovery can last for years (in the case of Victor Stanley, four years) and can involve going back to the data well many times for a multitude of matters or custodians. The process involves many more parties than purely Legal or IT, but touches upon the foundation of a company's technology strategy.

In order to develop a thorough discovery process, GCs and, increasingly, CIOs need to bring as much e-discovery in-house as possible. CIO.com states that:

The other critical remedy to minimizing risks and costs is bringing as much of the e-discovery process as possible “in-house”. Of course, this means that in-house staff must have a thorough working knowledge of the relevant processes, organizational archiving and data structure and enough technical know-how to choose and implement the right tools to support the required processes, which include (data) identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis, production and presentation.

ZL Technologies developed our solution exactly so that companies can have this level of control over their data. Streamlining the discovery process is only one function of managing data, yet it may well be the most important, as emphasized by Judge Grimm in Victor Stanley Inc. v. Creative Pipe Inc. Corporations should get control of their data and discovery...and leave prison to the murderers.