Early case assessment (ECA) describes the process by which litigation counsel consults with IT personnel who understand a client’s network infrastructure.

ECA’s purpose is to determine, in light of the legal allegations and probable defenses, the likely sources of electronic discovery and the most efficient means of preserving electronically stored information (ESI) for production later in the case.

The goal is to enable a party to implement defensible litigation holds and avoid distracting spoliation claims – and expensive discovery do-overs – all with minimum disruption and expense. That’s the theory, anyway.

Let’s examine a hypothetical case involving claims against a company that one of its new employees absconded with trade secret information from her prior employer, which she is now using to gain unfair competitive advantage in her new sales position.