Corporations and individuals faced with actual or prospective litigation are often inclined to undertake the preservation and collection of their own electronically stored information (ESI). This is often referred to as “self-collection.” While on its face this may appear to be a feasible and cost-effective approach, “self-collection” can fall victim to the law of unintended consequences and bring about disastrous results.
With self-collection, the implementation and execution of a litigation hold falls upon an interested party that may, on top of that, not have the legal or technical competency to identify, preserve and collect documents potentially relevant to actual or prospective litigation.
