Process Makes Perfect: Some Guidance on Mastering Early Case Assessment

Early Case Assessment (ECA) is the e-discovery solution most in demand, according to the 2009 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Report (Socha-Gelbmann, 2009), and with good reason.

ECA is the litigation-related effort with the highest return on your investment. Frugal general counsel who mandate an intelligent investment in ECA reap significant benefits in favorable outcomes and cost savings.

There are many benefits and misconceptions about ECA. The benefits are overwhelming, but an understanding of them is needed in order to avoid falling victim to the misconceptions.

A LexisNexis online survey conducted between Jan. 28, 2007, and Feb. 23, 2007, by Cogent asked 341 practicing litigators at mid-sized (20-75 attorneys) and large (76+ attorneys) law firms across the U.S. a series of 40 questions about their early case assessment and analysis practices, the perceived value of those practices and outcomes they ascribe to early case assessment and analysis. Based on their answers, we can report that the benefits of early case assessment include:

• Successful outcomes — attorneys responded that, on average, performing early case assessment results in a favorable outcome in 76 percent of cases
• Strategic planning — 87 percent of respondents said early case assessment is beneficial for determining the best way to proceed with a case
• Reducing expenses — conducting early case assessment enables attorneys to reduce the litigation expenses in 50 percent of their cases on average
• Managing budgets — More than half of attorneys surveyed (57 percent) find early case assessment assists in their ability to prepare a more accurate litigation budget

Savvy litigators shouldn't be put off by the misconception that ECA is all about electronic evidence or that they need some clairvoyant ECA software. ECA is a human process. It is litigation fact-research of the most traditional kind, and for all but a small portion of the work related to Electronically Stored Information (ESI), it is a paper process.

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Source: law.com
By: Babs Deacon and Jeff Fehrman