Why you need a first-class eDiscovery support team behind you

With eDiscovery, there’s no such thing as ordinary. Every matter is different. Routine cases never are.

So how do you create a repeatable and defensible methodology? Having the right support is a good start.

The trend for deploying unsupported eDiscovery solutions is leaving litigation teams and their clients badly exposed. You’ve perhaps heard the argument? These tools are so good, so easy to use, that litigators don’t need project management, expert services and 24/7 support around them.

A misleading stance

This is plainly untrue for anything but the smallest matter. Even run-of-the-mill matters in the Big Data era tend to be large. Complex litigation matters involving multiple terabytes of data definitely need project management and technical support. In large, consolidated actions with co-counsel working together or lawsuits that are time-pressured, expert eDiscovery support is often the difference between success and failure.

Expert support teams can help litigators to think outside the box about a matter, offering best practice learning on how to define or structure eDiscovery and taking extra quality control steps to make sure that productions come out the way they are supposed to. But simplicity, speed, and quality are only half the story. What about cost?

Specialist often means cheaper

For many heavy-lift eDiscovery tasks, it just makes good economic sense for specialist technical teams to take over. This frees legal teams to focus on more high-value legal support or even take on bigger caseloads. And this approach usually makes casework cheaper too, delivering economies of scale through bulk, industrial processing ,and by employing technical teams that can not only get the job done faster but are often billed at a much more modest rate than attorneys and senior paralegals. Time and cost savings that can be passed on to clients.

The best service teams offer hands-on support. Regular touch points. Easy direct lines of communication into a whole range of expertise. People dedicated to working together to make the different parts of eDiscovery go smoothly.

• Account Executives. These experts are responsible for the overall project, looking after the lead attorney and your matter. They have seen it all before. Their job is to craft a strategy that makes sense to your unique needs.
• Project Managers. On a big case, eDiscovery can be a very drawn-out process. These pros will help to keep your matter running on track and on schedule, foreseeing issues that may waylay a project if left unattended. They’re a lifeline for the lead attorney and in-house eDiscovery teams, keeping an eye on the big picture and making sure that your matter delivers the outcomes you need with one point of contact for everything.
• Technical Analysts. These specialists work at the backend, supporting the project manager, attorneys, and paralegals by expertly dealing with technical requests, data processing, administration, reporting support, quality control support, and so much more.
• Process Improvement Directors. These individuals are litigation support gurus, whose job it is to ensure that litigation best practices are being followed. They work with the project manager to streamline and optimize process and work at a platform level, ensuring that proper documentation and guidance is available.

Casepoint puts this expert combination of talent on every project as a minimum. Specialists are hand-picked from an experienced pool. Service-orientated. Battle-tested.