Discovery Response Planning

The requirement to become “discovery ready” is driving companies to assess, analyze,  and plan their discovery response practice. An effective discovery response plan proactively anticipates the type of discovery that could be initiated and develops an offensive response strategy.

A response plan requires coordination amongst key members of senior management, employees, and the discovery response team. The goal is to provide guidelines that will serve as an overall organized business process for computer investigations and discovery. The steps include forming a discovery response team, creating an ESI map, and drafting
the plan.

The plan targets processes needed to identify, preserve, collect, process, review, and produce ESI in a timely and cost effective manner. It identifies deficiencies in terms of cost, risk and time in light of the FRCP and outlines best practices and “quick wins” to improve overall process.

A legally-defensible discovery response plan builds upon prior experience, provides a common language, and establishes a framework that will minimize risk associated with discovery including: failure to find responsive documents; failure to recognize responsive documents; failure to recognize privileged documents; inconsistent treatment of documents; and the failure to a complete project according to schedule.

Services

• Gap analysis of past discovery practices and associated costs
• Recommendations for standardization of ESI identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, and production
• Recommendations for management of discovery activities and vendors

Benefits

• Defensible process for all phases of the discovery life cycle
• Reduction of time, resources, and costs
• FRCP compliance
• Mitigate spoliation

Click here to download the NightOwl Discovery Response Planning brochure.