The Broad Scope of Collection – Collection Fundamentals Series, Part 2
A multi-part series on the essentials practitioners need to know about ESI collections
by Matthew Verga, JD, Xact Data Discovery
In the first Part, we discussed lawyers’ duty of technology competence and the importance of understanding collection to fulfilling that duty. In this Part, we review the potential legal and technological scope of collection.
The Legal Scope of Collection
The practical scope of ESI collection is determined both by the actual requests from other parties and by your own information needs related to the matter. The maximum-possible scope is established by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) or your state’s equivalent ruleset. The FRCP establishes that scope as encompassing:
- Any documents or electronically-stored information
- In your possession, custody, or control
- That are relevant
- That are unique
- That are not unreasonably inaccessible because of undue burden or cost, and
- That are not disproportionate to the needs of the case
The first three criteria set a very broad potential scope for discovery collection.
