I certainly didn’t know about it, until Craig Ball covered it here on his excellent Ball in Your Court blog, but this eDiscovery Checklist Manifesto has a checklist for every phase of the EDRM, a terrific infographic (you know I love those!), and more!

The eDiscovery Checklist Manifesto was authored by Tom O’Connor of Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center (and my “partner in crime” in many webinars), Jeremy Greer of Digital WarRoom and Mike Quartararo of ACEDS.  It was released last year by ACEDS and Digital WarRoom, but some people (like Craig and me) missed it (c’mon man! 😉 ).  If you missed it too, you know about it now!

The 17-page PDF guide (technically 13 pages of content) begins with an Introduction that includes an infographic that provides an EDRM-like circular flow of “Unique Tasks” that begins with Consultation and then proceeds through all the EDRM phases from Identification to Production.  Common Tasks – Budget, Risk Analysis and Strategy – are represented in the middle.  The remainder of the document includes checklists and useful information for each of the “Unique Tasks”, such as:

• Consultation: Checklist of Key eDiscovery related Rules from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) and Comment 8 from ABA Model Rule 1.1, which includes a lawyer’s duty to “keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology”.  This is a terrific “one-pager” of rules to know.  This section also has checklists for Review of Factual Issues and Information Governance Considerations.
• Identification: Discussion of Data Map and Checklists for Sources of ESI, Non-Custodial Sources and Custodians.
• Preservation: A general Preservation Checklist and a specific checklist for creating a litigation hold.
• Collection: Forms of Collection and a Collection Checklist.
• Processing: What happens during processing and a Processing Checklist.
• Review: Steps to maximize the efficiency of the review and a Checklist of Primary Tasks to be conducted during review.
• Analysis and Production: Checklists of Primary Tasks for each of these phases as well.

My only suggestion would have been to try to find a way to also fit Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) 502(b) and 502(d) on attorney-client privilege and work-product protection (which I covered here) on the Rules checklist page, as those are very important rules as well.  Maybe next version!  🙂

The 13 pages of content in the eDiscovery Checklist Manifesto are a quick read with all the checklists and the document overall is an excellent guide to the different phases of eDiscovery.  It’s a terrific resource for any eDiscovery professional to help ensure that important considerations in each phase are addressed!  Check it out here!

So, what do you think?  Were you aware of the eDiscovery Checklist Manifesto?  You are now!  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.