All organizations can face litigation. The exponential growth of data makes responding to legal action costly and complex. Evolving case law, amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), regulatory pressures and privacy acts only add to the confusion. CommVault® enables organizations to investigate message and file archives, along with backup data, providing a comprehensive electronic discovery solution. An effective legal discovery strategy can mitigate risk and reduce the costs associated with litigation.

Responding to legal action is more than just archiving. The capability to manage backup data, along with archived messages, is becoming increasingly more important as courts begin to look beyond email for discovery. CommVault software uniquely provides capabilities for search and retrieval across all data types and data copies with our Singular Information Management™ software suite. A single interface enables the archive, find, search and retrieval capabilities necessary to meet the increasing demands for retention and retrieval regardless of data source or media type.

Another important step in responding to legal action is placing all relevant information on "legal hold." This means establishing a process to pause automatic tape rotations, disposition or deletion schedules in order to provide discoverable information in court. CommVault archive, media management and data protection technologies allow companies to effectively execute legal holds. A legal hold policy that spans email, files and backup tapes minimizes disruption and maximizes protection when responding to court ordered discovery requests.

Lastly, an effective media management strategy can help reduce the risk of sanctions. In some cases, organizations have faced severe penalties because they could not answer the simple question, "where is my data?" Knowing where your information is, and being able to access it for review, offers definite business advantages. Tracking the location of media, ensuring the integrity through regularly scheduled data verification processes and being able to audit and report the entire process are critical in avoiding the risk of sanctions.

CommVault encourages you to take control of your data, because it's not just data — it could be evidence.

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took place December 1, 2006. The Federal Judiciary met and approved changes to address discovery issues of Electronically Stored Information (ESI). The FRCP were first enacted in 1938 to define the process, procedure, and rules to conduct a civil trial. As you can imagine, several amendments have occurred since then to address changes in technology. Recent court rulings made it necessary for the committee to specifically address issues like where data is stored and how it is produced. The changes impact both IT professionals and legal departments alike. Basically, they are intended to force early attention to the topic of discovery, especially as it relates to preserving and producing data related to litigation.

What does this mean?
Essentially, FRCP amendments require legal and IT to collaborate. Gone are the days of legal being mystified by things like tape rotation, backup cycles and archival retention policies while IT is equally confused by jurist prudence and long sentences that end with words like "hereof." Instead, IT may be called upon to discuss how the organization's data is managed in a pre-trial conference. At the same time, the legal team may have to weigh the cost burden of producing all the data relevant to pursue their case vs. the cost of settling.

CommVault sees the amendments as an opportunity for your organization to put a more cost-effective, flexible data retention strategy in place. Preparing for these changes could mitigate risk for your organization and could reduce hefty financial burdens associated with litigation. The CommVault® Singular Information Management™ approach provides a flexible, audit-ready answer to the FRCP and includes a comprehensive strategy to enable discovery that spans:

Archive	Rule 34(a) and Rule 34(b)
Data Protection	Rule 26(f) and Rule 26(b)(2)(B)
Resource Management	Rule 37(f)

Legal Action Workflow

Key Benefits

• Reduce risk and costs related to electronic discovery
• Manage data from its creation to deletion across all repositories
• Produce, retrieve and review all discoverable data on demand
• Institute legal holds across all data
• Provide audit-ready reporting
• Grant legal users transparent access to information, empowering them to search and retrieve critical data
• Reduce the IT bottleneck associated with discovery

Additional Resources

• Solution Sheets:
  • Responding to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Reduce the Risk of Sanctions with Effective Media Management
  • Responding to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Minimize Disruption and Maximize Protection with a Responsive Legal Hold Strategy
  • Responding to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Reduce the Cost of Discovery with Data Archiving
  • Addressing e-Discovery for Education: Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Extend to K-12
• White Papers & Analyst Reports
  • Addressing e-Discovery and Legal Hold Requirements
  • Osterman Research: The Impact of the New FRCP Amendments on Your Business
  • Enterprise Strategy Group: CommVault Data Archiving: A Holistic Approach to e-Discovery for Electronically Stored Information (ESI)
  • Contoural: An IT Perspective: What Legal Wants and Seven Things IT Can Do To Meet Legal's Needs