eDiscovery

Early Case Assessment That Shapes the Matter Before Collection Starts

The most consequential eDiscovery decisions are made in the first few days: which custodians actually matter, which data sources hold the responsive material, which collection paths preserve chain of custody, which cross-border wrinkles will need coordination, and whether the resulting collection can be performed remotely or has to move devices. A useful early case assessment is not a scoping call. It is a defensible technical review of the data-source landscape that saves weeks of collection time and produces the record counsel can use in the Rule 26(f) conference and the first round of discovery motions.

What Early Case Assessment Actually Delivers

A validated custodian map. The org-chart-based custodian list is a starting point. The interview- and telemetry-validated list is the deliverable, and it is usually shorter and better-targeted.
A complete data-source inventory. Cloud tenants (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Teams, Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot and the rest), file estates, messaging platforms, mobile devices, structured systems and the shadow-IT surface. What actually holds responsive material, ranked by likelihood.
Preliminary volume and cost estimates. Enough characterization of the responsive population to estimate collection, processing and review costs before the client commits.
A defensible collection plan. Which sources to collect first, which collection method to use for each, and what preservation posture to hold on sources not collected in the first wave.
The record for the meet-and-confer. A documented technical review counsel can use in Rule 26(f), including specific answers to the questions opposing counsel is likely to ask about data sources, preservation and format.
Cross-border wrinkles surfaced early. Data-localization, blocking-statute and privacy-framework issues identified before the collection triggers a problem.

How the Assessment Actually Works

Initial legal-hold and preservation-posture review so the ECA does not disturb an active preservation obligation.
Custodian interviews covering what each custodian actually does day-to-day, which tools they use, which devices, which colleagues and external parties they communicate with, and where they keep working documents.
Cloud-tenant reconnaissance against the admin consoles for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Teams and any comparable platforms the client uses. Enumeration of mailboxes, sites, drives, channels and integrations.
File-estate and structured-system inventory of the SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox and network-share surface, plus enumeration of the structured systems (ERP, CRM, HRIS, financial systems) likely to hold responsive material.
Mobile and messaging assessment covering both corporate-issued devices and personal devices used for work under the client’s BYOD posture, and the messaging platforms in play (SMS, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, WeChat, and comparable). Where mobile content will need to be collected, the ECA scopes whether it can go through the client’s MDM or requires a consent-based shipped-agent acquisition.
Preliminary preservation orders for the sources identified as likely-responsive, so preservation is in place before formal collection begins.
Cross-border coordination review where custodians or data sources reach beyond US jurisdiction, including LATAM subsidiaries where our Miami practice is particularly deep.
Draft collection plan and cost estimate, presented to counsel with the specific tradeoffs and options that shape the engagement.

The Platform We Work In

Early case work runs on the platform that fits the matter. For most engagements we work in our in-house environment (eCloudDiscovery for cloud-source collection and initial staging, CompleteDiscovery for the review and evidence-analysis surfaces), which keeps early-phase iteration cheap and fast. For enterprise-scale matters or where opposing counsel or the court expects a specific ecosystem, we stand the same workflow up in Relativity, Reveal or Nuix.

Case in point

A 72-hour ECA that reshaped a cross-border collection plan

A South Florida holding company received a preservation letter naming ten custodians across the US parent and its Colombian and Brazilian subsidiaries. The initial vendor proposal quoted a six-week custodian-by-custodian collection targeting laptops and email at each named custodian’s workstation. Counsel retained us for an independent early case assessment before that proposal was accepted.

The 72-hour ECA looked at the actual data-source landscape rather than the org chart. Interviews with IT, review of the tenant admin consoles across Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, mapping of the file-storage estate across SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive and a shared corporate Dropbox, and enumeration of the messaging platforms in use (Slack in the US, WhatsApp Business in both Latin American subsidiaries). The results were consistent across the three entities: roughly eighty percent of what a responsive collection would need lived in three cloud tenants and could be collected against the ten custodians centrally, not device-by-device. The remaining twenty percent was scoped to specific mobile devices for the WhatsApp Business content and a small number of local files on two custodians’ laptops.

The revised plan cut the collection timeline to under two weeks and the total collection cost to under a third of the original estimate. More importantly, the plan produced a defensible custodian and data-source map that supported a Rule 26(f) meet-and-confer under-oath declaration and gave counsel a clean answer to the opposing side’s first two rounds of discovery motions.

Where Our Miami Early Case Practice Runs Deepest

Cross-border and Latin American matters

US parents with Colombian, Brazilian, Mexican, Venezuelan and Dominican Republic subsidiaries; Latin American entities with US-facing exposure. Bilingual (Spanish and Portuguese) interviews, data-localization awareness, and coordination with local counsel on blocking-statute and privacy-framework considerations.

Construction, maritime and land-use matters

Data sources common in these sectors run heavier than average toward jobsite-installed collaboration platforms, project-management systems (Procore, Autodesk Construction Cloud, PlanGrid), and the specific SharePoint and shared-drive patterns construction and engineering teams actually use.

Fintech, crypto and digital-asset matters

Assessment scope extended to the compliance systems, trading platforms, custody and settlement systems, and the internal chat platforms that the Miami digital-asset cluster actually uses. Coordination with regulatory counsel where the ECA overlaps with an active examination.

High-net-worth probate and estate

Assessment scope tailored to the specific patterns of individually-held data (personal email, personal cloud storage, family-office administrative systems, investment-manager portals) that HNW estates typically carry.

Insurance-carrier defense scoping

For automobile, commercial-vehicle and product-liability matters where the vehicle’s own electronic record is one input among many, ECA scoped against the full evidence landscape (vehicle ECU, telematics, driver’s mobile device, dispatcher records, corporate messaging).

Corporate internal-review and compliance matters

Assessment scoped to the specific concern rather than a wide-net collection, so the internal record supports the corrective-action decisions the client needs to make on documented facts.

What the Client Actually Receives

Documented custodian and data-source map with likelihood ranking
Preliminary volume and cost estimates by source and by collection method
Draft collection plan sequenced by priority and dependency
Rule 26(f) meet-and-confer preparation record
Preservation-order package for the sources identified as likely-responsive
Bilingual interview and documentation record where the matter spans language boundaries
Cross-border coordination notes with recommended local-counsel touch points

Standards and Standing

Methodology anchored on the EDRM (Electronic Discovery Reference Model), the Sedona Conference principles on eDiscovery, and the specific proportionality framework applicable under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26. Analysts hold digital-forensics credentials (SANS GCFE, GCFA) and eDiscovery credentials (Relativity RCA/RCU, ACEDS CEDS). Reports and preservation-order artifacts are structured for authentication under Fla. Stat. § 90.901 and Federal Rules of Evidence 902(13) and 902(14).

Last updated: September 4, 2026

The Best Time to Assess Is Before Collection Starts

Whether the trigger is a preservation letter, a complaint or an internal concern, a well-run early case assessment saves weeks of collection time and produces the record counsel needs for the first round of discovery motions.

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