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Kroll Ontrack Survey Reveals Litigation Hold and Automated Document Retention Functionality Are Key Drivers in Information Management Decisions

This survey, conducted by Kroll Ontrack on the show floor at LegalTech New York 2010, Feb. 1-3, provided insight into how corporations and law firms are managing data with respect to evolving business needs, legal and/or regulatory requirements and electronic discovery requests. Key findings indicate that litigation hold and automated document retention functionality are key drivers in information management purchasing decisions. In fact, the ability to retain documents for business continuity or legal purposes was ranked as the most important factor when utilizing technology to manage data for ESI requests.

"In addition to managing the growing volumes of electronic data, corporations must cost effectively and defensibly respond to investigations and requests for production of electronic data," said George May, vice president of product strategy, Kroll Ontrack. "Organizations must implement defensible retention policies and adequate technology to respond effectively to investigations, litigation and regulatory matters. To stay on top of these demands, implementing an archiving system with robust legal hold capabilities and automating an organization's document retention and disposal process is more important than ever."

"The most defensible litigation holds center around effective document retention policies and seamless execution. But, all too often, organizations rely solely on technology without considering the other part of the equation: people and process," added Jason Straight, vice president of legal technologies business development and consulting services, Kroll Ontrack. "A combination of a sound document retention program, the right tools and a team approach ensures organizations are prepared for the inevitable and can perform a credible, repeatable and defensible ESI request response process."

Respondents also consider early case analytics, automated document destruction and storage optimization to be important factors when utilizing technology to manage data for business continuity or legal purposes.

Nearly 170 law firm attorneys, corporate counsel, IT administrators and legal support professionals participated in Kroll Ontrack's in-person survey, which consisted of separate questionnaires to capture the unique perspectives of law firms and corporations. The majority of corporate respondents were comprised of general counsel, IT and litigation support professionals.

The Legal Technologies & Consulting division of Kroll Ontrack provides corporations, law firms and government agencies with technology and consulting services for large scale paper and electronic discovery, computer forensics, and litigation readiness and incident response matters. Through the acquisition of TrialGraphix (September 2007), the leader in jury consulting and trial presentation services and technology, Kroll Ontrack now offers a wide range of trial services such as jury research; witness preparation; trial consulting; graphics; and presentation technology for mediations, arbitrations, and trial. Helping clients quickly and cost-effectively find, review, manage, produce and present relevant evidence, Kroll Ontrack has been recognized as the leading electronic discovery provider by the Am Law Tech Survey for eight consecutive years (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009).

About Kroll Ontrack Inc.

Kroll Ontrack provides technology-driven services and software to help legal, corporate and government entities as well as consumers manage, recover, search, analyze, produce and present data efficiently and cost-effectively. In addition to its award-winning suite of software, Kroll Ontrack provides data recovery, paper and electronic discovery, document review, computer forensics, secure information services, ESI and jury consulting, and trial presentation services. Kroll Ontrack is the technology services division of Kroll Inc., the global risk consulting company. For more information about Kroll Ontrack and its offerings please visit: www.krollontrack.com; www.ontrackdatarecovery.com.

Kroll Ontrack Inc.
Kaitlin Shinkle, 952-516-3581
kshinkle@krollontrack.com
or
Andrea Young, 952-358-5516
ayoung@krollontrack.com