By James D. Shook, Esq. and Andrew M. Cohen, Esq.

Companies reviewing their electronic discovery options are frequently faced with a difficult choice on how to implement litigation holds and collect relevant electronic information. At first glance, the choice seems to be a “Catch-22”: should they: (a) quickly and inexpensively implement an employee self-service approach, and accept the inherent risks of such an approach; or (b) spend time and effort up-front to deploy tools that will systematically allow an investigator or legal team member to identify and collect the information?

There is no easy answer – in part because every company has different litigation volumes, tolerance for risk and budgets for litigation, electronic discovery and IT. Moreover, both approaches, if implemented correctly, are likely to be acceptable to most courts. However, there is a significant amount of risk and difficulty hidden in the self-service approach, which can lead to “faux eDiscovery”– where a company incorrectly believes that it is meeting its electronic discovery obligations. This article will identify and explore some of those risks, assess the system-oriented approach and offer a roadmap for improvement.

Read the full article by James D. Shook, Esq. and Andrew M. Cohen, Esq.