Special Report on e-Discovery: Making e-Discovery Cost-Effective for Smaller Companies

In the days of only paper documents, smaller companies could afford to wait until they became involved in a lawsuit to worry about pre-trial discovery, but today's reliance on digital information makes that a risky and unnecessarily expensive strategy. To meet the requirements of the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning electronic discovery that went into effect on Dec. 1, 2006, companies need to plan and prepare ahead of time. Although these rules present a new set of challenges for small companies, the good news is that developing and implementing an e-discovery strategy does not always have to be an expensive project. By taking a handful of cost-effective steps, companies can save both time and money in litigation costs in the long run.