It only takes four little words to strike fear in the hearts of businesses everywhere: you have been sued. This is the first line in a stack of documents sent to someone, or their attorneys, when a lawsuit has been filed. The reality is, however, that the process of litigation actually begins well before a suit is ever filed. That’s why it is so important to understand the rules of preservation as a part of the larger e-discovery picture.

Simply put, preservation is the process of making sure that any information relevant to a lawsuit, or pending litigation, is saved in a way that does not hinder the process of using that information during the discovery phase of a trial. Let’s use that old journalism technique of the five ws to go through the process: who, what, when, where, and why (and we’ll throw in that often overlooked h, as in “how,” just for kicks) of preservation. All of this is designed to help create and execute on a preservation plan by evaluating people, processes and software.

  • Who

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