E-Discovery

When the costs and risks of E-Discovery began to rise, Freeborn developed a state-of-the-art E-Discovery Lab to control our clients’ costs, gain control over the process and provide a comprehensive solution to data management.

Opened in 2006, our highly developed in-house E-Discovery Lab leverages technology to reduce the volume of documents in discovery and pass the savings on to clients. In fact, since the Lab’s founding, we have saved clients millions of dollars in discovery charges compared to using other outside vendors.

For example:

  • No charge for hosting our clients’ data
  • No gigabyte charge for processing data
  • No per page tiff costs

Latest Technologies, Defensible Actions Focus

We use the latest technologies and, where needed, develop custom features and applications to add value and save costs for clients. State-of-the-art technologies include:

  • Netapp – optimizes storage resources and allows us to reduce our data storage needs
  • LAW Pre-Discovery – an advanced data culling and processing tool that allows us to reduce the volume of data to be processed and reviewed
  • Relativity – an advanced document review platform that allows us to drive down the cost of attorney review

From start to finish, our focus is on defensible actions so our clients do not pay the price for incorrect deeds.

  • We rely on best practices to inform clients about data retention policies and defensible data collection
  • All clients benefit from our Best Practices and Records Retention Program
  • We have compelled opposing counsel to re-collect or re-process electronic data for failures to perform defensible E-Discovery practices.

Services

Litigation Preparedness

  • E-Discovery Inventory and Data Mapping – we help lower the costs of E-Discovery by undertaking a focused inventory of your electronic-information systems and architecture so that all potential sources of responsive information are known before litigation occurs. Our process includes:
    • Interviewing key IT personnel and developing detailed descriptions of IT systems that serve as roadmaps for fielding current and future discovery requests.
    • Mapping the locations of various types of data relevant to litigation, a regulatory investigation, or third-party subpoena situation. This serves as a reference tool to inside counsel, outside counsel, records managers and IT personnel.
  • Information-Retention/Deletion Policies – we work with our clients’ IT and legal teams to develop detailed information-retention and information-deletion policies. The goal is two-fold: 1) Helping your company reduce regulatory and/or litigation risks resulting from any failure to maintain required documentation; and 2) Minimizing potentially monstrous e-Discovery costs in the event of litigation by ensuring the proper deletion of information where no preservation obligation exists.
  • Best Practices – we work with our clients’ IT and legal teams to implement best practices to reduce the risk and cost associated with discovery. Best practices include e-mail management policies, backup tape and disaster recovery policies and centralization of records. Implementing these best practices greatly reduces the overall cost and risk associated with a dispute while costing very little to implement.

Litigation

Litigants must perform the costly, time-consuming and burdensome tasks of finding and producing those electronic records in discovery, and those records often become the most troubling evidence in a case. E-mails, for example, typically include spontaneous statements that, whether accurate or not, may become devastating ammunition for opponents.

Although electronic information has been a part of litigation for years, amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure now expressly address the role of electronic information and establish formal discovery rules that courts and litigants need to interpret and apply.

Services include:

  • Litigation Holds – we devise and implement litigation-hold procedures to address risks before they materialize. Companies face significant exposure by failing to understand and implement measures to preserve electronic information at the appropriate time. Litigation opponents, with or without meritorious claims, may challenge any weakness in that process, arguing that there was an inadequate or untimely “litigation-hold” that resulted in the loss of information.
  • E-Discovery Requests – we are experienced in preparing, pursuing, and responding to E-Discovery requests. Our approach is built around preparation and anticipation, beginning with a carefully devised strategic plan.
  • Corporate-Representative Deposition Preparation – we have extensive experience in taking and defending corporate-representative discovery depositions, providing guidance throughout the process of identifying, preparing and representing companies in these depositions. Companies are increasingly required to provide a representative witness who can testify to aspects of their electronic-information systems and identify all potential sources of responsive information. Those depositions are complex and potentially fraught with risk.