The new Federal Rules direct parties to discuss electronic discovery early in the life cycle of a lawsuit. However, the planning and confirmation of an organization's ability to implement appropriate electronic data production should begin long before the discovery conference imposed by the Courts.

Percento Consulting assists clients in the planning and implementation of electronic data production. As a technical and communication bridge between an organization's internal information management team and outside counsel, Percento Consulting advises clients through the process of electronic discovery and assists counsel with a high-level understanding of the systems from which the data was retrieved.

Early preparation for electronic data production is an essential component of efficient implementation and cost effective action. In planning for the electronic discovery process, organizations should consider the following:

• Does your organization have an internal discovery team?Are there internal information technology professionals that are members of the discovery team? Are there external legal members of the team? Are there internal records and information management professionals that are members of the team? Are there external technical consultants who understand the legal process that are members of the team?
• Does your legal team adequately understand your record retention policies and practices and information technology infrastructure?
• During the discovery process, does your organization de-duplicate data prior to production?
• Does your organization have a procedure in place to preserve the "chain of custody" of collected evidence?
• Before you start searching potentially relevant documents and data, what steps do you take to guarantee that the original data collected can't be altered in the data analysis process?
• Are all of your search, review, and analysis activities repeatable?