"Today, more
organizations have a policy than ever before, but only one-third have tested
their policies and nearly half do not know if their policies have been tested."

~ Kroll Fourth Annual ESI Trends Report

I hadn't even opened my copy of Kroll's new report yet; that little tidbit was in their preamble.  It's an excerpt from their section, "A Decade of Discovery".  [The report is free, but you're required to register]

What else disturbs me?  Only 53% of companies have a litigation hold tool in place. 47% either don't have – or don't know if they have – a litigation hold methodology in place.  62% either haven't – or don't know if they haven't – tested their ESI policies.  62%.  Unbelievable!

That's a lot of "I don't knows".  All I keep thinking is, did the survey-respondent ask anybody before they answered these questions?  If not, they're basically admitting they're part of the problem!  Where's the communication!?

The other buzzword you're going to be hearing a lot more of is "ECA", aka early case assessment.  A lot of my colleagues have blogged about it.  You'll see it visually represented as the "ECA Funnel".  The short description is a review of a particular case to determine whether it's worth prosecuting – or defending; usually based on cost analysis and/or drag on resources.

Do you hear that sound?  That's the creaky door of the e-Discovery Insights vault opening to two posts from November of 2008 about proper testing.  Part I covered identification & preservation. Part II covered collection.

This just goes along with my premise; eDiscovery issues are solved at
the beginning, not the end.

Q.E.D.