Extract from Bill Mariano’s article “Winning Early: How Front-Loading Facts Can Shape Litigation Outcomes”
Getting to the heart of a matter is hard. As data volumes have grown, the task to understand key facts and formulate case strategy has only become more daunting. Traditionally, litigators have been reliant on what is often a cumbersome, lengthy discovery process. By the time document collection, processing and review are complete, months have passed and so have early opportunities to shape your case strategy.
Today, new approaches and tools are changing all that. A new class of search tools is redefining what’s possible—allowing a shift from a “search results” paradigm to one based on answers. Now, litigators can find and understand facts that matter before discovery even begins. Instead of waiting for productions to land, teams can start exploring the data early to identify key communications, documents and decision points that define the case. This doesn’t just make it possible to do early case assessment (ECA) even earlier, it fundamentally changes the game.
