I wrote a Predictions & Trends blog entry for work that is posted at the e-Discovery Team website run by Ralph Losey at Akerman Senterfitt. I thought about this for quite awhile. I have been to so many industry events and talks this year, even giving my fair share of talks and listening to others as well. The bottom line is when things go South, people contract their scope and double their efforts to control costs and do what is really going to have an impact. Litigation is no different, especially when so much money is at stake. My predictions fall into 5 major areas with a 6th one I couldn’t keep out:

Cooperation (and Colaboration)  – this applies to any business not just eDiscovery

Controlling Costs – everyone is interested in this at the moment given the economy and the state of our bank, brokerage, investment and other accounts…

Effective Information Management – finding what you want when you want it will become really important, not just to lawyers. Just look to your own inbox…

Use Technology to Your Advantage – there are so many choices in this area that I can’t even begin to tell you about them all. I can tell you about what Cataphora is doing if you want to know more about sophisticated search and retrieval technology.

Industry Turmoil – well, the eDiscovery (or some call it lit support, and, on the advanced side, some would like to call it analytics)) industry is going to be full of surprises and changes this year. Some companies will bite the dust in a spectacular fashion, while others will rise from the ashes like a phoenix. At any rate, there will be many changes in the players.

Competence – this is needed no matter what you are doing! If you aren’t competent in this area, find someone who is and pick their brains or hire them!

As I say in the last sentence of the blog entry, “Get in, hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride in 2009!” I look forward to hearing your comments!