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eDiscovery & Information Management
8-Point Inspection to Gauge LitigationReadiness
If your organization were sued tomorrow, would yourrecords management, IT, and legal teams be ready torespond effectively and efficiently? The enclosed self-assessment guide and ourprofessional consultation program will help you appraisethe information management practices within yourorganization and benchmark its level of preparedness.
Being “litigation ready” is often too vague and subjective to bemeaningful. Our free 8-Point Inspection adds objectivity so that you canmore clearly assess how prepared your organization truly is.If you are already in-tune with your information management practices,set aside a few minutes to complete theSelf Assessmenton thesubsequent page. Compare your total score with the Index below anduse that as a benchmark for your litigation readiness initiatives.If you would like a more objective and comprehensive assessment of your litigation readiness, ourComplimentary Professional Consultationislikely to be the best option for your organization.
THE LITIGATION READINESS INDEX*
The 8-Point Inspection to Assess Your Litigation Readiness
ZyLAB’s 8-Point Inspection assesses 8 differentaspects of your information management practices.
For a limited time, ZyLAB’s team of technical consultantsis available for a complimentary assessment (up to 3hours in length) of the systems and processes in place atyour organization. Subsequent to the consultation, youwill receive an action plan with our recommendations foroptimizing your information management systems. Your team will gain more insight and objectivity about thefactors that impact your ability to efficiently and effectivelyrespond to litigation, yet there is no obligation to proceedwith any of the recommendations that are provided.Contact 1.866.995.2262 ext. 800 to schedule acomplimentary consultation
conducted via our remotemeeting service or to schedule a more in-depthassessment at your location.
Option A: Complimentary Professional Consultation
A Litigation Readiness Index value in thisrange indicates that your organizationmay lack appropriate systems forinformation management and/or theremay be insufficient collaboration amongstakeholders in IT, Legal and RM toefficiently respond to litigation. A Litigation Readiness Index value in thisrange suggests that your systems maynot be optimized and that some relativelysimple adjustments could significantlyimprove future response to litigation. A formal consultation can provide aroadmap for you. A Litigation Readiness Index value in thisrange suggests that your organizationshould be able to respond to litigationreasonably well in terms of efficiency,a defensible methodology, and withoutsuperfluous disruptions to operations. A formal consultation can help to verify.
S c o r e S c o r e S c o r e
0-4950-8485-100
Total Points = This is your Litigation Readiness Score.
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CATEGORY 1: ENTERPRISE INFORMATION ARCHIVING (EIA)
Our unstructured information (including e-mail) is stored in the open, digitally-sustainable XML format; EIA principles are followedas part of our daily operating procedures.Our unstructured information (including e-mail) is stored in one proprietary system (eg. Microsoft SQL); We have a roadmap toEIA, but it is not fully implemented.Our unstructured information (including e-mail) is stored in multiple (siloed) proprietary systems; We do not have an EIA roadmap.
CATEGORY 2: INFORMATION VALUATION
A centralized resource has access to automated tools for cleaning-up legacy data and separating actual enterprise records fromduplicate or irrelevant information in the archive. A designated resource from each department is charged with separating actual records from duplicate or irrelevant informationin their purview.Individual employees are expected to properly categorize and store their information according to RM guidelines.
CATEGORY 3: RISK MITIGATION AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT
We fully leverage and govern a certified (i.e., DoD 5015.2 or Moreq-2) records management system that ensures wefollow appropriate retention and disposition guidelines for all enterprise information.We have implemented a robust records management system but it is not strictly enforced to ensure that we followappropriate retention and disposition guidelines for all enterprise information.Our HR files, legal contracts, and other legally risky records are managed in separate systems.
CATEGORY 4: COMPLEX ENTERPRISE SEARCH PERFORMANCE
We can retrieve hits in almost every file format, including complex foreign-language documents that were scanned in 4directions, bitmapped (eg. TIFF, non-searchable PDF), compressed in a Zip, attached to an e-mail, and nested in another e-mail.We can retrieve hits in documents that were compressed in a Zip, attached to an e-mail, and then nested in another e-mail.Our search tools will retrieve hits from the file formats commonly used by our organization.
CATEGORY 5: RESPONSIVENESS TO INQUIRIES
We can immediately produce realtime audit reports for regulatory inquiries and/or deliver upon FOIA or e-discovery requests aspart of a repeatable process.We can fulfill requests for this type of information, but it disrupts operations for staff.I’m not sure how successfully we would respond to regulatory audits or FOIA requests.
CATEGORY 6: E-DISCOVERY PROTOCOL
Our organization has pre-designated an “E-Discovery Liaison” as the point person to proactively bridge internal IT, RM and Legalinterests, liaise with outside counsel as needed, and follow standardized procedures for responding to e-discovery.We will just follow the same e-discovery process we followed for the last litigation.If litigation ensues, the legal department will involve the IT and RM departments when needed.
CATEGORY 7: EARLY CASE ASSESSMENT
Our organization has Text Mining & Analytics tools to assess the legal risk and define a litigate/settle strategy before ITimplements the legal hold.Once custodians have been notified and their data has been put on legal hold, our in-house team can assess the informationand the risk and make litigate/settle recommendations.We will wait for instructions from outside counsel pertaining to the risk and strategy.
CATEGORY 8: INFORMATION LOCK-DOWN
Information that is potentially relevant to the litigation can be automatically collected and locked-down on a legal hold serverwithout alerting the custodians to the litigation or disrupting operations.Our legal and IT teams will work with custodians to locate and preserve potentially relevant information.We will wait for instructions from outside counsel pertaining to what to collect and when.
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12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTS
Option B: Self Assessment Test
12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTS12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTS12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTS12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTS12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTS12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTS12.5 POINTS8 POINTS0 POINTSCheck one box fromeach category
Add the points values from each checked box.
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