Litigation Support and Electronic Disclosure

Getting Started

We return now to the solicitor described in e-Disclosure for Everyman and e-Disclosure - the Basics who returned from a high-level conference on e-Disclosure to find half-a-dozen ring binders and a couple of CDs of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and e-mail files in a box on his desk.

He had been tempted to ignore his new-found knowledge because, valuable though it was in many ways, he still had no idea what to do with the box on his desk. At that moment, a letter had come in from Rott, Weiller & Goebbels LLP, acting for the other side, strongly suggestive of a rough ride at the CMC if he was not ready to exchange Disclosure data PDQ.

He has read the articles on the Sources of Disclosure documents and Documents, Disclosure Data and Metadata. He has bunged off a message to the clients' MD with copies of Rott, Weiller's letter and the draft Disclosure Statement annexed to the Practice Direction to Part 31 of the CPR plus a searching set of questions about the company's sources of documents. Now he turns back to the box of files and CDs. Before he opens it, a message pings back from the MD. "Costs estimate down to Disclosure?" it reads.

It helps to reduce the problem to a check-list. How does the box of paper and CDs get turned into data? Who will do it and what is involved? What will it cost? What software will be needed? Who will look after it? Who is going to do the work in-house - what work is it exactly and how do we get trained to do it? What are the steps between this box of raw material on the one hand and a List of Documents and some exchangeable Disclosure Data on the other. What should I be saying to Rott, Weiller? What is it going to cost?

This is the point at which many give up. Let us instead break it all down to bite-sized bits. The sections below under the heading Detail take each part of the exercise in turn.

Part of the purpose of this site and of my business is to remove some of the layers of mystery and to make electronic disclosure accessible to users with little or no experience of it.

This is one of a series of articles aimed at demystifying the processes of e-Disclosure. The series includes:

Introductory

e-Disclosure for Everyman

e-Disclosure - the basics

Getting started

Detail

The sources of Disclosure Documents

Documents, Disclosure Data and Metadata

Choosing litigation software

Litigation Support Providers

If, meanwhile, you think that I might be able to help you, please contact me.

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