Preparing for the Meet and Confer

Proper preparation and documentation during the Rule 26(f) meet and confer process will greatly improve efficiency in the ediscovery phase of your litigation.

The meet and confer process should be undertaken in keeping with the Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation. All parties benefit from the just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution of legal disputes facilitated by cooperative, collaborative, and transparent discovery.

Part One of our checklist series outlines the steps to developing strong ESI protocols. This Meet and Confer checklist will help your team produce evidence in litigation more securely, better protect attorney-client privilege, and assure the integrity of evidence production for all parties.

Meet and Confer Checklist

STEP 1

Define relevant custodians, i.e. determine who has access to discoverable information.

STEP 2

Determine what types of discoverable information are available in:

• Emails
• Local computers/hard drives
• Cloud storage and remote servers
• Billing, purchasing, and/or invoicing software
• Social media, websites, and/or mobile devices

STEP 3

Investigate and understand your client’s IT structure:

• Email set-up (Outlook, Gmail, Office 365, etc)
• Be aware of any data retention policy that is in place

STEP 4

Set up a 30 (b)(6) deposition for the opposing party’s IT manager to learn about their email setup and data retention policy.

STEP 5

Draft a preservation request defining at least the minimum scope of relevant information.

STEP 6

Define what is privileged and confidential in your data, and negotiate terms for a clawback agreement in the event privileged material is inadvertently produced. (Rule 502)

STEP 7

Agree on metadata fields to be produced in the load file. (Use Nextpoint’s Production Specification sheet as a reference. Click here to download.)

STEP 8

Determine if you want to include native (original) files such as spreadsheets, databases, and audio/video files in the production, or if images of these files will be sufficient. (Native files may add context that can be useful to an argument, but reviewing them is less straightforward and may drive up costs.)

STEP 9

Begin compiling a list of keyword search terms and date ranges that may produce relevant data. Successfully arguing for a reduced scope of review can have a huge impact on final cost.

STEP 10

Determine format of delivery. (Nextpoint electronic exchange? CD/DVD? Hard drive? FTP?)