By Barbara Bennett

Litigation support personnel are the gatekeepers of discovery in litigation matters and, as such, one of their most important functions is tracking the various projects within their organizations. This responsibility includes:

• Recording when data was received and by whom
• The manner in which the data was collected
• How the data was processed
• Where the media is stored
• When the data was loaded into case management software
• Logging any issues encountered with the media
• Monitoring costs associated with projects

Maintaining good working relationships with various vendors is another important element in handling the EDD and other documents related to cases. Knowing the vital statistics that each vendor offers allows you to make the best decision about where to send data once it is received.

Some off-the-shelf software applications can track vendor information as well as the workflow of data received. However, another option worth investigating is developing a custom application based on your organization's computer infrastructure. By customizing your own application, you have a greater ability to track exactly what details are important for your litigation support department to function efficiently. Dickinson Wright PLLC is beginning to develop a tracking solution using Microsoft's SharePoint® for this very purpose.

Once this solution is completed, Dickinson Wright will have the ability to track information for each of the firm’s vendors including the type of services they offer, pricing information for each service offered, ESI processing options, and contact names and phone numbers. The system will also store pertinent documents such as organization brochures, confidentiality agreements, document/data retention policies and security policies for each vendor. Once this data is input into the software for each vendor, staff will more easily be able to match the appropriate vendor to the type of media that needs processing. This database of knowledge information can be shared with other members of your department or key decision makers so information can be processed quickly and accurately based on the available pre-screened and approved vendors.

One element that Michigan litigation support practitioners need to keep in mind is that the Michigan House Bill 5274, the professional investigator licensure act, was signed into law on 28 May 2008. Under this bill, it is now a felony punishable by up to a four-year prison term and a $25,000 fine for a person to engage in computer forensics in Michigan unless that person is licensed under the act or falls within one of its exemptions. There are several other states with similar regulations. What this means for Dickinson Wright is that unless the client collects the ESI, or we as attorneys for the client collect the ESI, we need to obtain the services of a vendor who is a licensed private investigator to perform this work. The ability to quickly cull down the vendors who meet this criterion is critical.

Another major component of this litigation support software is that it tracks each piece of media from the time it is received through processing and, finally, after it is imported into your case management software. Specific information to catalog includes:

• Date that data is received and sent to a vendor
• Custodian information
• Media size and name
• Bates ranges
• Cost and any additional notes

An additional section of the litigation support software allows copies of important documents to be attached, such as chain of custody forms, data collection information forms and key personnel lists. Furthermore, at any given moment you can open the appropriate case in the software and identify basic information such as important contact information — billing and responsibility attorneys, for example — as well as any special billing requirements, estimated project volume, Gant chart with milestones and deadlines and general case-specific comments. Finally, custom reports can be generated at the case level, saving litigation support department hours in compiling these statistics.

The benefits gained through using this tracking solution include:

• Greater efficiencies when managing and processing clients' media
• Streamlining projects using pre-approved vendors with whom you have good working relationships
• Leveraging business insight to make better informed decisions
• Generating custom reports for the litigation teams on their matters

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