Risks and Standards White Papers - Litigation Support

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White Papers - Risks and Standards

	Risks and Standards ©2006, Mark Lieb, Ad Litem Consulting, Inc.
Background	In this article I endeavor to illustrate how the adoption and firmwide institutionalization of a litigation technical standards document can benefit all cases and the firm in terms of lowered costs and improved turnaround times for technical functions such as loading data and creating productions. The benefits also extend to larger concerns which the legal team may never experience personally, but rely upon, nevertheless. Concerns include issues such as network security, remote access and backups. All of which are imperative to the success of each case. Instituting standards in a firm can aid in the firm realizing all the aforementioned benefits and more. Instituting a firmwide standard neither costs the firm significant investment, nor does such an action limit the attorney's ability to litigate their cases. In fact, it will help.

Basic Concept	What exactly are Litigation Support technical standards? There are three major concepts to understanding technical standards. The article uses them to illustrate how standards affect the case, firm, cost and speed: Element: A single aspect of a technical good, such as file type and folder paths Character: All elements of a technical good Standard: All the elements as relates to a specific law firm. All technical issues, or "elements", taken together, constitute the "character" of the data. The character extends beyond simple organization rules to include elements such as file, folder, volume and Bates naming conventions. The "standard" is a document that outlines firm preferences for these elements. If an electronic discovery vendor creates a database and the character of the delivery does not match the firm's standard, a technician must perform the work necessary to make it match. To ensure a work-free product, the firm can provide all vendors with a document outlining all of the elements which constitute the firm standards. When the vendor creates a product, the character must match the firm standard. Through instituting a standard, work can be avoided; the team sees lower costs and shorter turnaround times.

Best Practices Meets Reality	How the technician organizes files and folders affects the ability to perform routine functions such as backups and security. A popular misconception is that all information on a network file server is backed up on a nightly basis. For various technical and cost reasons, this may not be entirely true. If litigation files require daily backups, the IT Department needs to know which folders require this special consideration. Errant client-matter folders and their contents may not get backed up on a daily basis. The same logic holds true for security and access concerns. When people store files in ad hoc locations, there is no way to impose appropriate access restrictions to said data. Through firmwide use of standard locations for storing files, the firm can institute data retention policies which address ongoing backup and security concerns on both firm and case levels. If people at the firm chose to store files by default instead of by design, your data, and cases may be at risk.

Case Level Effects	Elements such as data organization and, even, file type and folder naming conventions also effect software operations and, ultimately, the legal team's ability to litigate and meet deadlines. The firm standard is a document which outlines all of these elements. Technicians use the standard to generate technical goods which will match the character of the firm. In those instances where product and standard do not match, all parties may reference the document to identify and understand deviations. The Litigation Support Department also configures software, such as Concordance and Summation, based upon the standard organization of files on the server. Certain software settings may require all subsequent storage to adhere to the original organization rules. Therefore, changes to storage and the network can directly impact the legal team's ability to access discovery or images through the document review system. Any deviation from the standard can also affect security and backup functions for any given case. In order to help ensure proper operations for the legal team, it is important that the character of all data for all cases conform to the same firm standard. In absence of the firm specifying a preference, vendors will generally use some kind of default for various elements. As a result the firm receives products that require subsequent technical work to match the firm standard. This work is avoidable.

Benefits	As it takes time to adjust each element of a non-standard delivery until the overall character is correct, it is advantageous to have each litigation technology good arrive, already matching the firm's standards. The time that Litigation Support has to spend adjusting vendor product to match the firm standard is time better spent working on other projects. For many firms it may also represent significant hours each year. In firms where the Litigation Support Department bills time to the matter, the cost adds up. It also means the client is essentially paying twice for the same product: once for the vendor to create the product and again for the firm to "correct" it.

Benefits - 2	When the law firm institutes a standard for all cases, the Litigation Support Department gains time to spend on other projects and initiatives. This is because incoming work requires less time to administrate. When the vendor delivers 12 CDs, an average savings of even five minutes per CD represents a total hour of technician time. When the Litigation Support Department processes hundreds of CDs per year, the savings can equal hundreds of hours per year. This is time the department could otherwise spend on internal firm initiatives, project management and matter specific work. Instituting a standard can save the Litigation Support Department technical time, lower costs to the client and benefit internal operations such as backups and network security. There are additional benefits, but those are for future articles.

Getting Started	How to start? The first step is to generate a standards document for your practice. If you do not already have a standard, one can be provided to you, free of charge. Join the thousands who have visited http://www.eDiscovery.org to download a copy of the latest Litigation Support Technical Standards. This document covers many elements for various litigation technology goods and services and is an excellent starting point for practices of any size. The second step is to read Litigation Support Department, which outlines strategies for standards initiatives in addition to other best practices projects. The book also includes a budget spreadsheet and case lifecycle flowchart. Reviews have been positive.

Qualify Vendors	Finally, work with vendors who are ALCI partners. These vendors employ ALCI certified technicians who can match the character of the eDiscovery.org Litigation Support Technical Standards. To learn more about ALCI certification and the partner program, please visit Ad Litem Consulting.

	ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mark R. Lieb is the President of Ad Litem Consulting and author of the books, Litigation Support Department and Litigation Support Technical Standards. Mr. Lieb has provided Litigation Support to legal teams for cases ranging from small collections to multinational, multi-firm litigation, involving millions of pages of ediscovery. He currently consults with firms, law departments, service bureaus and software companies on litigation technology best practices. If you would like to learn more about using technology in litigation, please feel free to visit Ad Litem Consulting www.AdLitem.com or call (866) 477-4523.