5 tips for keeping it legal 2015
Avoid Snafus and downtime
In 2015 data is growing especially fast for small and mid-sized businesses. While large companies and many growing legal and medical specialty companies have plans in place many of the companies we deal with, Real Estate, Insurance, Investment managers and others do not. This short article, 5 tips for keeping it legal 2015, helps people in those businesses avoid snafus and downtime by following 15 simple steps.
Avoiding Snafus and downtime
Legaltech News on 1/15/2015 David Cohen Published timely tips for the aggressive legal practice in the discovery area. The tips are good guide posts for everyone today. Everyone should spend a few minutes a day in discovery mode. Only a clear understanding of the tech footprint lets one get that peace of mind feeling we all deserve. Although we tend to see pitfalls and perils in the tech sector as a blur, especially those of us in it, when we slow down for a few minutes they are really easy to avoid. That’s where these tips are so powerful. They are are pretty simple and easy to implement.
“1. Implement Timely and Effective Legal Holds
Be sure that a legal hold is issued as soon as litigation is filed or reasonably anticipated. Confirm that the notice is sufficiently broad, that it is sent to the right custodians, and that it is updated and/or the recipient list is adjusted as further information comes to light.
2. Conduct Key Custodian Interviews
Do not count on the hold notice alone—there should be oral interviews with at least the key custodians and appropriate IT representatives in almost every case, to help ensure that auto-delete protocols are suspended and all relevant information is identified, preserved, collected, and produced where appropriate.
3. Obtain Privilege Non-Waiver Protection
In every case, seek to obtain an order pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) (or similar state rules). That protects you against a privilege waiver resulting from the inadvertent production of privileged information. A non-waiver agreement can protect against waiver vis-à-vis the signing parties, but a 502(d) order also provides protection against third party waiver.
4. Be Proactive About Document Collection, Processing, Review and Production
In most complex litigation today, vast quantities of ESI and other documents may be involved, but the time allowed for responding to document demands is comparatively short. If you wait to receive a document request before starting to collect and process documents you may already be behind the 8-ball. Anticipate document demands in advance and start the collection and review process as soon as possible to be in the best position to meet discovery challenges.”
While all 15 of the tips make sense we condense them down to five. Actually we keep almost everything which is good because the storage size keeps growing and with the cloud almost infinite.
- Trash it unless it is actionable.
- Appoint a local data administrator.
- If your company is larger than is fifteen people or greater appoint 3 peer assistants to help the data administrator.
- routinely review and archive.
- Backup everything on a father, grand father and vault method.
The conclusion is that data must be maintained in today’s ever growing data centric world. Data is the most important detail in business. Keep yours safe by keeping your important data and getting rid of the shrapnel.