Production - Hosting Data
From EDRM
Contents |
Volume of Data
In the paper discovery world, it was not difficult to scale up for large volumes of unexpected production documents. At the worst, it was inconvenient and might have resulted in additional expense if space had to be leased to accommodate more boxes than expected. However, in the electronic discovery world, there are many more issues and most of them are not readily visible. You may receive a very small hard drive in the mail instead of hundreds of boxes of documents, but that hard drive may contain many more documents than hundreds of boxes would contain. It is still necessary to find “space” for a very large volume of electronic documents, even if you can’t see them as you can see boxes of paper documents.
How Much Data is Expected to be Produced by Each Party?
The amount of data will directly impact how it is handled. If the expectation is that outside counsel will load all the production data onto their server and access it via their litigation support database, it is important to discuss this with outside counsel as early as possible to confirm this is an option. For example, loading 10 gbs of data onto outside counsel’s server for inclusion in their litigation support database may be feasible. However, what if 50 gbs or 100 gbs are being produced? What if there are five parties and each will be producing 10 gbs of data for a total of 50 gbs? Does outside counsel’s server have enough room for this amount of data for this case? Do they have the internal technical support to manage it?
Will the Amount of Data Grow Significantly After the Initial Productions?
Don’t forget that inevitably the volume of documents actually produced is always more than originally anticipated. Always plan on more rather than less and ask yourself:
- Will there be supplemental productions?
- Is it likely that the discovery requests will broaden?
- Will the number of custodians or sources of documents grow?
- Will third parties be producing large amounts of data in response to subpoenas?
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Who Will Need Access to Data
Access to documents is determined by the technical structure hosting the documents. If access is only needed by outside counsel’s legal team it may not be necessary to hire a service provider to host production documents. However, if the in-house legal team or others external to outside counsel will be assisting with the review of documents it must be determined whether outside counsel’s IT structure allows for access by non-firm personnel. If not, the production documents will have to be hosted by a service provider. Other questions to consider are:
- Will co-counsel share the same data collections?
- Will documents be produced to other parties by making the documents available in a web-hosted environment for review and selection of documents?
- Will expert witnesses be provided limited access to some of the production documents and deposition transcripts?
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