What are the challenges of electronic disclosure?

According to the speakers/presenters from the legal world, the challenges are explored by themes which are;

Implications of the latest electronic disclosure developments
Minimising costs associated with eDisclosure
Best practices for managing and preserving electronic information
Developing litigation response strategies
Tips and traps for records management
Litigation strategy
Plus much more…

Not unusual that the legal world have tips and traps for records management.

On the subject of record management, I went to a talk & workshop on records management only last week, conducted by IT/Software professionals. The presenter actually raised some very interesting questions (no tips and traps) for the workshop discussions. One discussion topic was on ‘how to manage across boundaries (inside and outside the organisation)?’

Records management is not a challenge in edisclosure. Records management is already defined by the rules of the games i.e. the CPRs and the various procedures/processes for edisclosure. Ah! Maybe the rules of the games need to be reviewed or re-learnt/re-visited (by lawyers?) or maybe the lawyer’s interpretation of records management is different from what the IT/Software people viewed as records management. For the record, even within the IT/Software community records management have generated heated discussions especially when viewed in terms of knowledge management. Edisclosure is getting ‘relevant/needed/asked for/disputed/evidential’ (or any other keywords searched for) information from knowledge workers to other knowledge workers (or information seekers). Information is knowledge/power.

To me, this is the real challenge. It will involve not only strategy but the art of getting these knowledge workers to really want to collaborate. Who will be responsible for getting the information? Who will be fined? Knowledge workers or their managers?

Maybe the next Lawyer Conference will start to address the real challenges of edisclosure.