The ABA Journal, in an article in its August 2005 issue (pg. 38) quotes a lawyer as saying, “The issue that threatens to swamp everything else on cost controls is electronic discovery.” Later, the article cites a Jones Day study that found that the average corporate executive has accumulated about 180,000 to 200,000 pages of records, or about 100 to 120 full boxes.
Law departments may have to team with their internal IS department and with law firms or vendors to have a chance against spiraling discovery costs. (See my post of March 5 on Preston Gates and e-discovery, and Aug. 5, 2005 about Sears’ discovery efforts.)