A survey from Kelton Research commissioned by Xerox Litigation Services pointed out that while most companies have faith in their e-discovery abilities, they are not prepared to tackle the mandates of document retention and retrieval.

Of the 200 legal professionals surveyed, only 29% said they were ‘extremely prepared’ to handle e-discovery requests.

Among 81% of the respondents, who review documents for litigation purposes, the study found that in-house e-discovery review systems provide slow turnaround, inadequate support, lack of important features and inadequate IT department support.

Forty two percent of the respondents blamed slow turnaround for their problems, 41% cited inadequate system support. Another 41% said that in-house software lacked important features such as search options. And, 38% blamed IT for its inability to support the in-house document review system.

As you would expect from a company that provides litigation services, over 1/3 of the legal professionals said the benefits of outsourcing e-discovery work are cost-effectiveness and decreased time processing documents.

As a result of the survey, Xerox recommends that legal professionals get together a litigation game plan. This plan would equip them with policies and procedures so they can more readily respond to litigation. Legal professionals may not always want to rely on in-house software and appliances for their e-discovery needs, but should consider either outsourcing those requirements or supplementing their in-house systems. Companies should also seek external advice – of course, this would be with Xerox Litigation Services.

You might ask, why is Xerox interested in e-discovery? In 2006, the company acquired Amici, an e-discovery service provider. Xerox Litigation Services, which grew out of this acquisition, provides in-house counsel and outside law firms with enterprise-wide discovery management processes and services.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW.