Early Case Assessment
Early Case Assessment is the practice of analyzing the scope, cost, risk, and likely merits of a dispute at its outset by reviewing key documents and data sources before committing to full-scale review or litigation.
Early Case Assessment (ECA) is an information-governance and e-discovery practice in which an organization rapidly surveys the people, records, and data sources tied to a matter to estimate its scope, exposure, and strategy before investing in full collection and review. It sits early in the e-discovery lifecycle, after a duty to preserve arises and a litigation hold is issued, but before exhaustive processing and attorney review.
ECA matters to recordkeeping because it forces an early, honest accounting of where responsive records actually live, how much electronically stored information exists, and what it will cost to review. A well-governed records program with reliable retention schedules, defensible disposition, and accurate metadata makes ECA faster and cheaper, while disorganized holdings inflate volume and risk.
For example, before deciding whether to settle, counsel might sample a handful of custodians’ email and shared drives to gauge data volume and identify privileged or sensitive content, rather than collecting everything. That early sample distinguishes ECA’s estimating purpose from the later, comprehensive review that produces documents.