Extract from Doug Austin’s article “Differentiating Between ECA and EDA–and How the “E” Has Evolved”
Many people in eDiscovery easily swap the terms Early Case Assessment (ECA) and Early Data Assessment (EDA)–and it’s a pet peeve for some of us, including me.
A typical post about this topic would focus on the differences between the “C” in ECA and the “D” in EDA. It’s important to understand those differences because ECA and EDA are different.
But perhaps even more important to understand is how the “E” has evolved over the years, because “early” is now earlier than ever.
If you’re conducting eDiscovery the old way, you may not be early enough.
Differentiating ECA and EDA
First, it’s important to differentiate Early Case Assessment and Early Data Assessment. There are differences, and the best place to start is to define the two terms. I could do it, but there’s a terrific resource that does it already – The Sedona Conference Glossary, eDiscovery & Digital Information Management, Fifth Edition, which has nearly 800 definitions and is available for download here (login required, which is free)
