Litigation Readiness

The most recent legislation passed by the Victorian government, known as the Document Destruction Act and heightened scrutiny from regulatory and prosecuting agencies have placed greater emphasis on the need to manage electronic information actively with a focus on the discovery process in potential litigation.

Planning for litigation is necessary to meet retention and preservation obligations, satisfy disclosure requirements, address evidentiary standards, and defend the reasonableness of the company’s electronic records management.

Electronic Considerations

Electronic record-keeping has revolutionised discovery. Recent studies have estimated that the percentage of information stored by companies on paper is probably in the range of five to ten per cent, and likely declining rapidly. That means that over 90 per cent of information is stored in electronic form only.

Waiting until the first meeting on a litigated matter to assess a corporation’s electronic information management is fraught with danger. A company may well find itself under severe time pressure and without adequate time to address any gaps. Instead, organisations should develop and implement an effective document management program outside the pressure of a pending litigation so that it can be done thoroughly and effectively.

Advantages of an Effective Information Management Process

By investing in the development of an effective and legally defensible information management process In House Counsel can significantly mitigate the risk of eDiscovery.

A proactive approach offers a number of benefits:

- Helps to develop a clear understanding of the scope of potentially responsive evidence

- Increased ability to predict the total cost of discovery

- It can help to minimise business disruption throughout the litigation process

- Preserving of data that allows for efficient review and speedy response

CCH Workflow Solutions proactively work with corporations to effectively manage data that could be relevant to future litigation, reducing both the time and money associated with eDiscovery from a data management perspective.

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