In the ordinary course of business an organization is not required to save all documents and data within the company. However, once the duty to preserve has been triggered, information must be preserved and must be collected in a manner that is useful and compliant with the Federal Rules.

At the commencement of litigation and before receiving any formal discovery request, a party must disclose to opposing parties certain information, including a description by category and location of documents and electronically stored information.

Technical e-discovery protocols will help ensure that an organization's discovery plan is the most technically accurate and efficient plan for the organization. In order to comply with discovery rules while maintaining productivity and minimizing the cost and resource burden on an organization, the following key factors should be considered:

• Does your organization have a discovery plan in place prior to involvement in any litigation? One that is applicable on a uniform organization-wide basis?
• Does your discovery plan include contact information and outline roles and responsibilities for individuals on the discovery team?
• Does your discovery plan include data gathering procedures?
• Has your discovery plan been reviewed by counsel and a technical e-discovery expert?
• Does the plan include a template of interview questions for key employees (individual employees, department/business unit leaders, and third parties) related to the potential litigation?
• Does your organization have an inventory of IT systems and data architecture (e.g., employees' computers, servers, data storage units, tape backup drives, software applications)?
• Can your organization map its IT assets and data repositories to relevant/related individual employees, departments, and business units?
• Does your organization utilize backup tapes as a storage media longer than specified for disaster recovery?
• Does your organization include backup tapes in its discovery plan? Can your company easily produce a document detailing how data is backed up, including types of tape drives, backup software used, and the backup rotation schedule?
• Does your Discovery Plan include creating a forensic image of certain key computers?
• When collecting documents and electronic data from key players to the litigation, do you also consider collecting copies of removable media?
• When collecting documents and data from key players to the litigation, do you also consider collecting copies of potentially relevant files from their company-supplied home computer?
• When collecting documents and data from key players to the litigation, do you also consider collecting data from their personal data assistant device (PDA) and/or cell phones?