The data collection process begins before your EDD vendor ever sets foot on site with the preservation requests you deliver to your clients.  Data preservation seems to be one of the biggest issues in most e-discovery disputes, so make sure that your client is well aware of what a legal hold means.  Be careful not to define the hold too narrowly, because further review of collected data may bring additional custodians into an e-discovery collection.  Data that is deleted during a legal hold (regardless of relevance) will negatively affect your client's image.

After determining which custodians are involved, begin communicating with your client.  Find out what electronic devices your custodians possess and where they store data.  Do they use a laptop or a desktop?  Do they have an external hard drive or thumb drive that may contain relevant data?  Do they use any kind of webmail for business-related communication?  Anything that is left out of a collection could be brought up later by opposing counsel to show that someone was attempting to hide something.

If you feel that custodians are going to be cooperative, let them know what is happening.  You can be somewhat vague on details, but can let them know what your EDD vendor is going to be doing, and when their computers need to be available for collection.  The more a custodian knows, the more likely they will be cooperative.  If you think the custodians are going to be uncooperative, you can collect the computers for "maintenance" purposes or to "check if the computer is capable of software upgrade ‘X.'"   Either way, have a game plan in place and execute it before your vendor arrives on-site.  Without a plan, the possibility for confusion and missed evidence increases (along with your total cost).  Also remember that an informed EDD vendor means a better, less expensive collection with less time spent on site.

(Need to catch up? Start at Part 1)