Exterro

Electronic discovery is expensive. Identifying, collecting, processing, analysing, and finally producing electronically stored information (ESI) to opposing counsel is time consuming and resource intensive. Besides the costs of producing data, expenses are multiplied by the current adversarial nature of litigation. “In some cases, discovery becomes a tool with which to bludgeon the other side into submission,” wrote Judge Joe Brown in a recent ruling. “Rather than monitoring and moderating the process,” parties are in many cases simply “throwing gasoline on the fire.”

Guest Blog by Michael Hamilton, J.D., Exterro, Inc. // Being an attorney is like being a juggler. Within the litigation process there are many balls (tasks) to juggle: reviewing a claim, researching legal precedence, interviewing witnesses, submitting interrogatories, prepping experts, reviewing documents and more.

Jennifer Hamilton, global e-discovery counsel at Deere & Co., talks to LTN‘s Editor in Chief Monica Bay about developing a checklist with a 430-point criteria to vet vendors for a legal hold tool, which led to its receipt of the LTN Most Innovative Technology in a Corporate Law Department award.

In e-discovery, collaboration between multiple teams for tracking, monitoring and ensuring a defensible and comprehensive e-discovery process is essential. Project managers play the vital role of coordinating and managing this process so that matters stay on track and important information does not fall through the cracks.

As e-discovery costs have increased, along with the available data that may be responsive to litigation or investigation, corporations and their legal departments have demanded more control of the e-discovery process from early case assessment to collection and production. To satisfy this need, Exterro extended its Fusion platform to offer corporate legal departments and their service providers a Zeta product, which gives the company credibility in claiming Fusion is an end-to-end e-discovery platform.