Attention Risk Managers: The Biggest Risk You’re Not Thinking About
Are you struggling with the risks and costs associated with electronic discovery? You are not alone. Electronic discovery expenses are causing litigation defense costs to increase at a rapid rate. Electronically stored information continues to grow and the more a company has, the more it will have to spend to preserve, collect, process, review, and produce that information in litigation. Fewer than 20% of companies consider themselves “well-prepared” to handle electronic discovery in a contested civil or regulatory matter, and errors in this process have been extremely expensive for insureds and carriers alike.
We Can Help
ACT has joined forces with world-class strategic partners to offer an end-to-end insurance electronic discovery solution to:
- Reduce defense costs by 30–50% immediately
- Develop and execute a compliant litigation readiness program
- Incentivize insured companies with premium reductions
- Reduce or waive insured’s retentions
- Secure favorable policy terms and conditions
- Enable carriers to spend less on covered litigation discovery, preserving policy limits for judgments and/or settlements
E-Discovery Compliance Assessment Drill
The first step in realizing the benefits listed above is to conduct an E-discovery Compliance Assessment Drill to determine whether or not your company is managing its information in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and whether it can respond to a large electronic discovery request quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. The team will work with your company to conduct interviews for assessment purposes, create a hypothetical case and conduct a mock electronic discovery response. These exercises, supported by metrics, will allow the team to recommend necessary improvements regarding:
- Compliance with applicable electronic discovery rules
- Preservation, notice, collection and review practices
- IT/E-mail/Records Management Systems
- Records Retention Schedules, Policies and Procedures
- More favorable policy terms and conditions from carriers
Litigation Readiness and Response Program
The E-discovery Compliance Assessment Drill will identify gaps in your company’s current practices and a program can then be developed to help fill those gaps. Such a program can include the following:
Litigation Readiness “tool kits” including
- Defensible litigation hold policies and procedures, and employee document search certifications
- Standardized litigation templates customized to comply with the new e-discovery rules
- Meet and confer outlines and demonstratives
National E-discovery Counsel
- Coordinate with in-house counsel, outside counsel and service provider to control costs and ensure accuracy, consistency and efficiency
- Implement processes and develop proof kits to defend against spoliation
- Advise on data preservation, collection, review and production
Discovery Response
- Web-based review and electronic discovery management tools
- Document collection, preservation, processing and production
- Outsourced attorney review
21st Century Information Management
- Records Management Policies and Procedures and Records Retention Schedules, compliant in all jurisdictions
Legacy Media Reduction
- E.g., how to dispose of non-current backup tapes defensibly