Is E-discovery Ignorance Bliss? Round 2: John Henry vs. the Do-Nothing

http://ow.ly/7Ru0d

An article by Katey Wood on the enterprisestrategygroup.com website, on the Information Asymmetry Blog.

This article discusses strategies employed by corporations regarding how they handle their electronically stored information.  The article examines the use of a willful ignorance strategy and analyzes if this strategy is beneficial.

The article discusses a previous article on this topic, regarding a "John Henry" type approach to eDiscovery, which seems to equate to a more reliance on large numbers of attorneys to resolve the issue, rather than reliance on technology.  The article states, " Lawyers who feel like they’re going to die with their hammer in their hand a la John Henry aren’t likely to scrutinize their costs much, much less send out an RFP for steam-powered machines to do it and potentially replace them."

The article goes on to address the "do-nothing" approach, "...it’s safer than confronting the problem head-on in any form. Avoiding tracking e-discovery costs means avoiding budgetary (and operational) scrutiny. Avoiding scrutiny means avoiding calls for change. Avoiding change means avoiding being responsible for that change, and avoiding repercussions for the results.

In this sense, ignorance about the true costs of e-discovery can be status quo “bliss.” The question is:

• Do general counsel want their money’s worth, or do they just need to bring down costs “enough” in the short term?
• And are e-discovery vendors and service providers doing enough to convince potential buyers that the effort to change will be worth it?"

The article suggests that tracking costs is a first true step to making any change.  For a specific corporation, if cost-efficiency is created through the use of technology, and if risk is being mitigated through the use of new processes associated with that technology, then this makes the call for change much more justifiable.