Extract from BIA’s “Custodian Questionnaire Template”
A Custodian Questionnaire template that is comprehensive but also customizable will pay dividends from the very start of your information-gathering quest. Custodian Questionnaires (CQs) enable companies and litigation counsel to collect information about a matter from all custodians quickly, efficiently, and at a very low cost. With a secure online solution like our TotalDiscovery offering, that data is collected into a centralized database that allows easy tracking, comprehensive reporting, comparisons across custodians, and more.
Typically, counsel will interview custodians at the outset of a matter to aid in their fact-gathering, strategy discussions, and overall case preparations. While such interviews can be very useful, it’s much more powerful and efficient to start with CQs first, and a well-constructed Custodian Questionnaire template can save you many, many hours.
When utilized properly, not only will CQs improve your fact-gathering processes, but they can reduce the number of necessary custodian interviews (and the associated costs), allowing counsel to focus on truly key custodians and more important matters. CQs can also help counsel better prepare for custodian interviews and improve the overall fact-gathering process.
