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Achieve Proportionality with Confidence

Author: Tim Steele
Achieve Proportionality
Proportionality is a cost-benefit analysis applied in the context of Civil Litigation Rule 26(b)(1) whereby the needs of a case are weighted against the burden of producing relevant data (ESI).

Why Proportionality

Proportionality guards against costly over-discovery as attorneys weigh the importance of the information necessary for the case, the difficulty of producing that information, and whether the discovery burden outweighs its benefits.

Achieve Proportionality

Rule 26(b)(1) limits the scope of discovery to relevant, non-privileged information that is proportional to the needs of the case. Proportionality ensures lawsuits are reasonable, and necessitates litigators gain insight into a case with speed.

Two primary objectives for litigators:

Forces Inhibiting Proportionality

Achieve Proportionality

-DATA-

Where data is – and the ease of retrieval – inhibits meeting time constraints with speed, confidence and insight.

-WORKLOAD-

Norton Rose Fulbright’s 2020 Litigation Trends Report confirms that COVID-19 drove more litigation:

  • 31% report disputes increased as a direct result of COVID-19
  • Almost 70% report increasing workloads
  • 50% report pressure to reduce legal spend
Achieve Proportionality

-DEADLINES-

Federal and state rules of civil procedure timelines dictate that attorneys must reach their conclusions with speed {26(f) & 16(b)}:

  • Hold “Meet and Confer” conference “as soon as practicable” (21 days or less)
  • Disclosures and discovery plans filed less than 14 days after Rule 26(f) meeting
  • Complete discovery within 90 to 120 days after the Rule 16(b) conference

Achieve Proportionality with Confidence

Macro forces inhibit economical and insightful proportionality:

  1. Increased disputes without budget to scale resource
  2. Headcount reductions
  3. Increasing, unmanaged, unstructured data surface in which relevant data must be found
  4. Meet time commitments with the balance of case merit and cost containment

Rule 26(b)(1) § The committee notes that parties should consider reliable technology as a means to reduce costs in cases involving large volumes of ESI. Heureka’s indexing platform optimizes proportionality by identifying relevant data earlier than any other platform. And, Heureka classifies and tags PII in full support of data governance initiatives.

Achieve Proportionality
Data “relevance” is realized early in the discovery process, saving time and money

Heureka, Inc.’s platform is protected by patent number #10,970,297, awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Please visit us at http://www.HeurekaSoftware.com or watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SyDehZLO08.

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Achieve Proportionality with Confidence

Achieve Proportionality with Confidence