Store, Manage, and Retrieve Relevant Data with Confidence
Compliance Can Be a Minefield. Take a Trusted Guide.
Corporations are now required by law under Rule 26 to produce all case-relevant information in a timely manner. We specialize in creating electronic records management compliance policies that help keep the costs of litigation support to a minimum.
Compliance Policies Not Only Solve Problems, But Also Anticipate Them
Businesses now must have clear policies on records management, including data retention, so that they can easily identify which data is applicable to a discovery motion. They are required to reveal their eDiscovery policies in their first meeting with a litigation opponent after a case is filed. This includes a plan for producing the data in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) within a reasonable amount of time.
Innovative Development Helps Clients Manage and Prepare for eDiscovery
We help clients overcome the major hurdles that obstruct efficient, less costly, and compliant records management process.
- Hurdle: Growing Data. Increasing Costs. We understand the increasing volume of electronic data that impacts corporate legal departments and the matters they must address. More electronic data means higher eDiscovery costs. Further, a lawyer must review every document produced for a case. Unfortunately, lawyers and paralegals strain to decipher data developed and supported outside the purview of the corporate legal department. Historically, records management has been handled by internal groups more concerned with archiving data to clear space – and keep storage costs low – instead of eDiscovery and legal requirements.As data storage becomes less expensive and easier to manage, developing clear and applicable retention policies is a critical necessity.
How We Help: Engineer a Systematic, Legally Compliant Framework. Innovative Development harmonizes record management, retention, and eDiscovery implementation across an organization based on clearly delineated strategies and action plans. A systematic and legally compliant approach saves time, money, and staff resources.
- Hurdle: Complex Regulatory Environment. Whether an organization operates in a heavily regulated vertical market or not, there are numerous regulations that it must navigate to stay in compliance. In the United States, these include a range of disparate regimes: the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Securities and Exchange Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and other specialized regulations, any number of which require information to be kept in a prescribed fashion for specified time period.
How We Help: Implement an Information Governance Strategy. Step-by-step, we review the components of the Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM) and standard Information Governance (IG) guidelines to help identify responsibilities, processes, and practices for IG. We bring a corporate-wide approach to ensuring that the legal requirements are integrated into business processes and IT service requirements. The result is more efficient data culling that saves costs in both data storage and utilization.
- Hurdle: Data Retention Acceptable to the Courts. Businesses must focus on the FRCP Safe Harbor rule for data retention. The rule provides an exception for organizations by establishing a systematic and legally justifiable method for retaining electronic documents. If the company took “reasonable” steps to preserve the information, and any destruction of records was done in “good faith” by systemized practice and policy, the firm may not face penalties for failing to produce the evidence.
How We Help: Develop Clear Repeatable Rules and Standards. The key to qualifying for Safe Harbor is repeatability. If even one record was not subject to a company’s data-retention policy, the suspicion will be that other documents may have been preserved and deliberately not presented. We help develop a records retention policy that can be met on every single record, thereby avoiding court fines and further legal action.