10 Tips Leading to Efficient and Effective E-discovery for the Small Law Firm

The new rules allow for the discovery of electronic information in legal cases. If a defendant says that the information is too hard to find or would cost too much to produce, they can ask the court to decide if they have to provide it. The court will look at the facts and decide if the information is easy enough to get. If the court decides it is not, the defendant doesn’t have to provide it. But they still have to say that the information exists. If the defendant says the information is hard to get, the court will do a two-step process to decide if it is. The defendant has to prove that it’s hard to get. If you’re a lawyer looking for electronic information in a court case, you have to show a good reason for needing it. If the court agrees, you might have to pay for the costs of getting the information. To save money, think about whether you really need the electronic information for your case. Don’t ask for more than you need, and plan your discovery carefully. This will help you save time and money. Learn about how electronic information is stored and transmitted to save costs. Use the internet to research and consult with tech-savvy people. Hire a consultant or talk to someone who used to work for your opponent to find out what information is available electronically. Then, talk to your IT consultant to come up with a plan to retrieve the information. These low-cost methods will help you get the information you need for your case. If you need help with computer systems and data during a legal case, there are affordable options to consider. Look for local IT experts like professors, IT workers, or students who can help you at a lower cost. When you need more in-depth help, it’s worth investing in a computer forensics expert. This may seem expensive, but it will save you money in the long run. You can negotiate payment with the expert to make it more affordable, and they may also have assistants who can help at a lower cost. When you’re handling a court case, it’s important to plan out what information you really need to win the case and not waste time and resources chasing unnecessary data. With new rules in place, it’s crucial to figure out what you need early on and focus on getting that. Don’t ask for things that are not needed, as it will just make your case more complicated and expensive. Talk to your computer and IT experts to help you make well-informed decisions about what information to pursue. Before the scheduling conference, use your IT expert to evaluate your opponent’s information systems and determine the costs associated with the requested production. During the initial meeting with your opponent, make sure to talk about how they are preserving evidence, what types and how many documents they have, where they are stored, and what systems they use. Also, discuss how they will give you the information you request. It’s important to bring an IT expert to the meeting and ask your opponent to do the same. After the meeting, you can choose the best format for getting the information you need. There are four basic formats: online tools, native files, litigation support load files and images, and printed paper. You should learn from your own research and your expert which format is best for your case. It’s also important to understand what the original format of the documents is and how they were stored. Recent cases suggest that the original format of the documents may have to be given to you if there’s no good reason to object to it. So, it’s important to know what the original format is for the documents you want. When asking for documents in a different format, think about whether the files can be changed, if they can be tracked with a unique number, and if you can remove private information. Also consider if you can search through the text easily. This will help make sure you get the information you need. If a defendant has electronic information that is difficult or expensive to access, they can say it’s not reasonably accessible. This means they don’t have to give it to the other side, unless the other side has a good reason for needing it. But the other side might have to pay for it. This might be a problem because it could make it hard for people to get important information in lawsuits against big companies. Cost-shifting in electronic discovery should only happen when it’s really expensive for the responding party. To save money, small law firms should focus on getting access to important information and use the new rules to their advantage. For example, if the other side says certain information is hard to access, they have to give details about it, so you can decide if it’s worth pursuing. This can help you keep costs down. If the defendant says that getting electronic information is too hard and expensive, you can still try to get it if you have a good reason. You might have to pay for it if the court says so. When you argue for why you should be able to get the information, you should say why you need it, why you can’t pay for it, and if it will help your case. The new rules about finding and using electronic information in court make it more challenging for small law firms. But with some planning and help from an IT expert, a small law firm can still get good evidence from the other side. The important thing is not to be afraid of the new rules and technology, but to learn and use them to win cases. This is an article submitted by the Trial Lawyers Section, written by a lawyer at a law firm. The article discusses the use of online tools and file formats in legal cases, and includes references to specific court rules and case law.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/10-tips-leading-to-efficient-and-effective-e-discovery-for-the-small-law-firm/