As an experienced lawyer, you can probably take a look at a matter when it arrives and make a projection about how much time it will take to handle and how much it might cost to take it to trial.
But that’s just an educated guess, and guesses aren’t what general counsel want to rely on in making decisions that cost thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars. They want concrete facts.
But how can you know what you don’t know at the start of a case?
You can use early case assessment (ECA).
With ECA, you can take a deeper dive into your data at the outset of a matter and get valuable insights into how much discovery might cost, whether there are bad facts that you need to avoid surfacing to opposing counsel, or whether a staggering amount of potentially relevant data might tip the scale toward early settlement.
To optimize your ECA process, you need to do two things: adopt the right processes to streamline your workflow and narrow the scope of the data for collection and then apply the right technology to get the most insight from your data. But how?
In our latest guide, we’re sharing 9 best practices that will refine your ECA process to make it as cost-effective and efficient as it can be, so you can get the insights you need to form a powerful case strategy and drive down discovery costs.