Companies bringing eDiscovery in-house as costs climb

As companies continue to face more stringent legal obligations and oversee larger and more diverse information archives than ever before, eDiscovery has become a prohibitively expensive pursuit for some. Whereas companies were once content to outsource these processes to legal experts and litigation support teams, cost control impulses are now inspiring a number of companies to equip themselves with the tools and knowledge to handle eDiscovery in-house.

According to the latest analysis from Global Digital Forensics, more than 85 percent of all business correspondence in now conducted electronically. As a result, the face of information management has fundamentally changed in recent years with email archives starting to take precedence over filing cabinets.

But while this has improved efficiency in many ways, it has made eDiscovery a much taller task. Company information archives are now far deeper than ever before, exponentially increasing the burden on litigation support staff searching for the "needle in a haystack" during the discovery phase of a trial. Unfortunately, document review comes at a cost as legal teams have not been shy when reporting and justifying their billable hours.

According to Global Digital Forensics, growing frustration with expensive third-party services and the maturation of mass market eDiscovery tools are now causing companies to reexamine the advantages of their outsourcing arrangements. But while this self-sufficient attitude is admirable, GDF advisors insist that business executives do not make the mistake of stubbornly refusing assistance or ignoring outside options that could cover internal skills gaps.

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