Legal Hold Pro

New Study Points to Need for Change in How Government Agencies Manage E-Discovery

IE Discovery just published its 2011 Benchmarking Study of Electronic Discovery Practices for Government Agencies and it seems like “times they are a-changin,’” to quote the inimitable Bob Dylan. In-house legal teams at the Federal level are starting to feel the same pain as their counterparts about the rigors of preservation and electronic discovery.

This is the fifth year that Austin-based IE Discovery has been surveying attorneys, records managers, paralegals and IT professionals are facing “increased workload while moving more work in-house” while their e-discovery burden grew “exponentially.”

Here are a few of the highlights from this year’s survey:

• Budget constraints are lessening with only 15 percent of respondents reporting this as a top concern compared to 30 percent last year.
• Confidence is growing surrounding electronic discovery processes as 60 percent of those surveyed feel more confident about their ability to respond compared to the year before.
• Over 70 percent feel like they work well with their IT departments.
• Forty five percent of e-discovery projects are handled in-house.
• More than 30 percent said their electronic discovery burden grew exponentially.
• Agencies are moving towards cloud-based platforms.

The results of the Benchmarking Study survey build a strong case for implementing a cloud-based litigation hold and preservation workflow management tool like Legal Hold Pro.  Agencies are beginning to look at technology solutions to maximize employees’ efficiency and more defensibly handle the larger caseload in-house. Even though budget pressures may be easing, Legal Hold Pro is priced to be accessible in order to help free up employees to work on other projects.

If you work in the public sector, contact us at info@legalholdpro.com so we can show you a brief online demonstration so you can better understand how Legal Hold Pro can improve your agency’s processes.

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