Litigation Support Professionals - Why Are They Important?

Litigation support specialists have a critical role within law firms or legal teams, and can be especially helpful to reduce the weight on attorneys that deal with many matters and large discovery e discovery productions. Here at Digital WarRoom, we work with many litigation support professionals, and we advocate strongly that firms with a specific person in charge of the discovery process will often have the strongest organization, efficiency and grip over meeting obligations.

What does litigation support mean?

When involved in litigation, attorneys will be required to meet specified obligations set forth at the state or even federal level. One of the most notable set of obligations involves rules for document discovery, and since 2006 there have been even more obligations to account for discovery of electronic information and documents (otherwise known as eDiscovery). Some law firms and practice types don't require as much eDiscovery, but attorneys still need to be aware of their duty of technical competence. While a litigation specialist does not in any way negate this duty of competence, this specialized support and experience can often be extremely useful.

In-House Litigation Support Services are particularly useful for the following skills:

IT Knowledge - This includes database management and the ability to handle load files and metadata across large numbers of electronic documents. An IT background will come in handy while working with eDiscovery vendors when it comes to the possibility of managing permission groups, or even running custom queries through SQL.

Knowledge of eDiscovery and the EDRM - While certifications are available, eDiscovery skills are best gained from direct experience. Litigation support will handle a much wider scope of work then a document reviewer. This may include proper preservation of data and issuing legal holds, running search terms to inform scope negotiation, performing early case assessment using eDiscovery software, and the handling, export and delivery of completed productions.

Document Review Oversight - While the senior attorney should be in charge of briefing document reviewers on the claim, a litigation support manager will work most closely with the review team and inform the day to day process. This litigation support service likely includes document management and batching documents into binders or review assignments.

Communication with vendors and proficiency with software - In addition to managing a team, litigation support professionals work best when taking advantage of all available resources, and that means working both with your own legal team and outside vendors. Digital WarRoom, for example provides one month of free training and unlimited, ongoing email support. Instead of manually creating a training guide for your team, check in with your vendor and see what kind of self serve options they provide and if they are willing to schedule refresher training calls from time to time. In the age of remote work and video conferencing, many team members can pile onto the same call/training session.

The Revolution To Insource Litigation Service

The reason why litigation support is becoming more prominent is the potential cost savings involved with insourcing eDiscovery. By switching from full eDiscovery support services or an expensive solution to a DIY solution, firms can realize incredible cost savings and pass those savings onto the client.

At Digital WarRoom, we have seen many examples of litigation support professionals taking charge of management their firm's e discovery matters. With a competent expert in control, the entire team can become proficient and learn to complete routine discovery tasks using software without the need for a third party to intervene.

In this ungated case study, we cover how IP litigation firm Carlson Caspers was able to reduce eDiscovery costs by 99% by insourcing their eDiscovery matters. A large portion of this effort came from litigation support professionals that essentially created the equivalent of an eDiscovery support services division within Carlson Caspers.

Just, Speedy, and Inexpensive eDiscovery Software

Digital WarRoom is among the software solutions commonly used by litigation support. This eDiscovery software is used to process, review and produce electronic documents for eDiscovery. A litigation support manager will likely need to manage the ingestion and organization of data, as well as document review, all the way through to the finalized production.

Our mission is to enable you to comply with Rule number 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil procedure - that is to provide eDiscovery that is Just, Speedy, and Inexpensive. For more information, schedule a demo with us today or email us at info@digitalwarroom.com.