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Technical Standards
Includes: - Load Files - Cost Codes - Quotes - For Vendors - For Firms  |
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Read about litigation tech strategies and best practices for the case and firm.
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Litigation Support Department Includes:
- Budget Spreadsheet - Needs Assesment - Case Technology Plan - Task and Check Lists - Member's Area Access  |
Table of Content - Complete Book
Clients
Preface
About Mark Lieb
To Litigation Support Professionals
To Attorneys and Paralegals
I Heirarchy II Services
III Needs Assessment
IV Tools
V Litigation Case Lifecycle
VI Supporting Files
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It is my hope that attorneys and paralegals can see how to leverage their Litigation Support Departments to their advantage, allowing for quicker turnaround and lowered internal and vendor costs.
This book does not limit the attorney’s ability to litigate as they see fit; rather, it is intended to show an attorney how to use software and hardware to support their litigation efforts.
For example, in electronic discovery, attorneys may wish to forgo the creation of accompanying images in their database due to the high up-front costs, thereby forcing the reviewers to base their opinions only upon the database record text and not how the document would appear if printed. This makes review a slower process. At the end of discovery, with production looming, they then pay to get the database "tiffed." This is akin to fixing up your home just in time to sell it, and is just as stressful; having the TIF images from the beginning would have made review a lot easier, and review must be stopped in order to allow the vendor to create the images and cds, and ship them for firm quality control (or "QC"). If the images had been generated at the start of the case, there would have been more time for review and less stress for all involved.
When the legal team identifies all potential sources of discovery for a case and how it will be used, Litigation Support can create an appropriate technology plan. The more quickly Litigation Support and the attorney communicate, the easier discovery is to manage. This type of procedural approach minimizes both errors and stress. Every case can benefit from the use of technical standards.
At the start of the case, the attorney should come to an agreement with opposing counsel as to production format and other technical considerations. Without such an agreement, one may have to pay a vendor large amounts of money to convert the production to a format the firm can use. This agreement should be made with the involvement of Litigation Support personnel on both sides. These issues can mean the difference between immediate access and access that takes days. Delays have a compounding effect.
This book will also show how to store information such as transcripts and CaseMap files on the server in an organized format. This type of simple folder-naming scheme makes life easier for users and support staff. If attorneys store their work in random fashion on servers, how will anyone else find those files? The use of client matter number folders has a few other benefits, including income generation, which are covered in more detail later in this text.