Popular media — special shout out to Ally McBeal — would have us believe that trials, particularly trial by jury, are the way most cases are resolved. But legal professionals will tell you that that is simply no longer the case. When the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect in 1938, 20% of federal civil cases were resolved with a trial. In 2017, it was less than 1%. All this despite the increase in overall civil litigation over the last 85 years.

Why is this important? If cases aren’t going to trial, then the discovery process represents most of the time and expenses incurred in a given case. But, as any lawyer will tell you, this process can quickly go off the rails resulting in expensive, risky, and overly complex discovery efforts. An electronically stored information (ESI) agreement can help parties limit the scope of discovery, mitigate the risk of disputes, help reduce unnecessary spend, and ensure that the parties obtain the information necessary to reach an earlier resolution.

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