No organization likes to think about the potential for a lawsuit, but legal experts agree that economic downturns tend to spur litigation. According to the annual Litigation Trends Survey conducted by international law firm Fulbright & Jaworski, organizations expect an uptick in litigation in 2009 following two straight years of decline.

Yet few organizations are prepared for litigation due to growing volumes of unstructured data. Over the last decade, electronically stored data such as e-mail has become vital to the resolution of legal disputes, forcing organizations to sort through vast data archives in response to e-discovery requests. Often, the timetable for e-discovery is short, driving up expenses and increasing the risk of costly court sanctions.

Organizations must adopt a proactive approach that anticipates potential litigation by effectively categorizing and archiving information throughout its lifecycle. Not only must organizations know where their data is located, but they must also know the degree to which that data is accessible or inaccessible. For example, data residing on live file systems on functioning servers is far more accessible than deleted or encrypted files, corrupted data, or data archived to tape or other offline media. The burden and costs to produce obviously increase in relation to the extent to which data sets are inaccessible.

With the volume of stored data skyrocketing and litigation on the rise, organizations need an effective strategy for data retention, compliance and risk management as well as proactive and reactive litigation readiness. Obviously you need to get your legal counsel involved. But FusionStorm can play a key role as well. We have the necessary tools and experience to help customers with technologies that facilitate effective e-discovery.

Let us help you create an e-discovery strategy that will ensure you’re prepared for litigation.

John Varel

CEO, Founder, Chairman

FusionStorm/Jeskell