Litigation Readiness

With the 2006 recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure  (FRCP) surrounding the proper handling of electronically stored information (ESI), organizations must now be able to quickly and easily produce emails, attachments and other electronic records.

Within 99 days of litigation initiation, parties must meet to discuss the scope and accessibility of electronic records. This “Meet and Confer” conference, also called the Rule 26 Meeting, means that within a very short amount of time, a company must clearly understand what ESI they have that is related to the case and be able to produce it.

Organizations that want to be litigation ready should be able to answer “yes” to the following questions regarding their ESI:

  • Can we produce electronic information in its native format?
  • Do we have a clear understanding of where data is stored and how to retrieve it in a timely manner?
  • Can we honor a legal hold by halting any previous purging practices until the legal matter is settled?
  • Can we prove the authenticity of the communications in question?


The right archiving system can help ensure that an organization is able to answer "yes" to the questions above, so it is able to approach discovery requests for ESI with confidence.