EDD Update

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IE Discovery Survey: Increase in Govt EDD

IE Discovery has released  2008 Benchmarking Study of Electronic Discovery Practices for Government Agencies, which surveyed legal and IT professionals at government agencies about their perception of e-discovery preparedness within their agencies.

The survey reports an increase of 8% in the amount of time the participants spent dealing with EDD issues. Full release here.

AW: 75% of Law Depts Face '09 Budget Cuts

Altman Weil has released a new Survey on Law Dept Cost Control that shows that 76% of responding GCS say their law depts face budget cuts averaging 11.5% for '09. And 15.6% say budgets will increase -- but by a smaller percentage than in prior years.

More than 80% of respondents cited outside counsel costs, and the unpredictable nature of legal spending. Third place, cited by 40% -- finanical exposure from litigation or potential litigation.

The survey was conducted in November and polled 1,292 GCs.

Kroll ESI Survey

Kroll Ontrack Inc. has released its second annual ESI Trends Report, which tracks developments in processing of electronically stored information. This year’s poll included 203 companies in the United States and 200 in the United Kingdom.
Kroll found that 70% of U.S. and 53% of U.K companies now have ESI protocols in place, yet one in four organizations (28% in the U.S., 23% in the U.K.) complain that increasing volume of data is a major challenge. Many respondents say a lack of time and resources is distracting them from implementing ESI programs: 31% (U.S) and 27% (U.K).
The survey also reports a 25% shift from 2007 in the allocation of ESI responsibility to IT department for policy development and enforcement.

Huron Consulting Group Legal Holds Survey

Huron Consulting Group partnered with the Compliance, Governance and Oversight Counsel  to survey Global 1000 companies with annual revenue from $5 billion to more than $150 billion, in a variety of industry sectors, about legal holds. About 50 companies participated.
Key findings of the included an increase in issuance of holds — 80% of respondents said their companies issue legal holds for every matter, the other 20% say they use risk and case analysis to determine holds.

Fulbright & Jaworski Lit Trends Survey

For Fulbright & Jaworski's 2008 Litigation Trends Survey, conducted by Greenwood Associates, respondents included 348 corporate counsel in the U.S. and U.K., spanning 10 industry groups. The survey reports decreased litigation, including a 10% decline in plaintiff filings, and a 5% decline in regulatory proceedings. However, 32% of respondents noted a jump in multi-plaintiff suits stemming from wage-and-hour claims by employees, and others cited a rise in privacy lawsuits.
The volume of litigation remains large, however, and 79% of respondents reported fielding at least one new lawsuit in the last year, with 27% facing more than 20, and 18% more than 50 new actions. 

The Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey: Time for a Change

The time has come for us, the creators of the Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey provider rankings, to kill our rankings. We intend to replace those rankings with an improved way to assess providers and their capabilities.

Why are we killing the rankings? We believe our survey rankings have reached the point where they no longer serve their original purpose. When they are announced, we are told, they can affect the share prices of publically held companies. They can have an impact on the ability of providers to obtain financing. They can be a key factor, sometimes the most important factor, in determining which provider is selected to take on a project or deliver a software program.

No set of generalized rankings should have this type of influence. Not ours. Not anyone’s.

2008 Socha-Gelbmann EDD Survey Sneak Preview

Update: The story's now live on the LTN website.

The anxiously awaited 2008 Socha-Gelbmann EDD Survey executive summary will be published in the August issue of Law Technology News, but here is a sneak preview to whet your appetite.

This year we gathered information from or about 107 EDD services and software providers, and from 29 law firms and 19 corporations.  Using more than 350 qualitative and quantitative factors, we ranked those providers - top overall EDD services providers, top overall EDD software providers, and top EDD providers in various categories.  Although one can, and perhaps should, take issue with the specific rankings, we feel that the providers listed below represent the best of the best, an elite cadre singled out from a field of well over 600 organizations that offer some form of EDD services or software.

What's driving GCs to the EDD party?

From a survey conducted by Ari Kaplan Advisors, sponsored by Fios, Inc., of 28 legal professionals from Fortune 500 corporations, apparently it's not all about the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regarding electronically storied information. Kaplan engaged corporate counsel responsible for litigation in a conversation to spark a dialogue on legal holds, data management, vendor selection, the amendments to the FRCP, litigation readiness, technology and e-discovery cost drivers and gleans some best practices in reducing EDD costs.

Outbound E-mail = Inbound Issues

A story on Law.com entitled "Outbound E-Mails Spell Inbound Legal Trouble for Corporations" points to a recent study from Proofpoint.com on how corporations are concerned about the content of their outbound e-mail.

The study received responses from a total of 424 "IT decision makers" including CIOs and IT directors from the US, UK, Germany, France and Australia.

Xerox Conducts E-Discovery Survey

Xerox Litigation Services has published a survey that evaluates the e-discovery preparedness of the legal community. Of 200 legal professionals surveyed, 29 percent judged themselves to be “extremely prepared” to deal with e-discovery issues. The press release with survey findings can be accessed here. 

Update: The survey results can be downloaded here.

Download xerox_survey_topline_results.pdf