ACEDS and Digital War Room have released a fantastic resource that is a valuable addition to any legal practitioner’s survival kit – The eDiscovery Checklist Manifesto.

Below I have excerpted the Introduction to give you a preview of what the Manifesto offers:

Litigation is complex, dynamic, and unpredictable. A good checklist is designed to be your guide in forming a consistent, repeatable process. From the moment litigation becomes imminent until a settlement or judgment, practitioners cannot afford to miss anything. Because of the high stakes of litigation, it is crucial to meet the necessary requirements to the court and zealously represent your client while managing time, budget, and risk. This manifesto will serve as a complete e-discovery checklist covering the legal discovery process.

The traditional Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) was developed in 2005 to provide practitioners with a common framework for work in e-discovery. Today, smaller teams are tackling e-discovery projects and “do-it-yourself” solutions are available at affordable rates for the small to medium case. At the same time, practitioners in e-discovery are expected to be technologically competent while the technology itself continues to evolve.

Educational content must also evolve to encompass new technological requirements of practitioners in alignment with their traditional role of risk management, cost management, and time management. The authors recognize that these responsibilities constitute an iterative, nonlinear process. In this manifesto, we establish a comprehensive list of points which form a more accurate depiction of the e-discovery lifecycle for the modern-day practitioner