Case management ediscovery checklist

What should an ediscovery case management checklist cover?

Case management is where ediscovery either stays on track or falls apart. A solid checklist covers the full lifecycle of a matter: mapping key dates before discovery begins (legal hold issue date, collection deadlines, review kickoff, production deadlines), issuing and enforcing legal holds with custodian reminders and compliance tracking, identifying every employer- and employee-controlled data source, setting review parameters and deduplication methods before documents hit the platform, agreeing on production format and metadata fields, and deciding how data is handled after production — online, offline, or archived.

Five reasons to download this checklist:

1. Get ahead of key dates before discovery begins

Legal hold issue dates, collection deadlines, review kickoff, production deadlines — missing one creates problems that are hard to recover from. Map every milestone up front, so you're managing the matter instead of reacting to it.

2. Issue and manage legal holds that actually hold up

A legal hold is only as good as its enforcement. This checklist covers drafting, issuing, and tracking hold notices — custodian reminders, compliance follow-up, and what to do when a custodian leaves mid-matter.

3. Map every data source — employer and employee controlled

Email servers, SharePoint, mobile devices, personal cloud storage, legacy systems — know exactly what exists, where it lives, and how to collect it before collection begins.

4. Plan your review workflow before documents hit the platform

Who's conducting first-pass review? How will privilege be handled? What culling methods will you use? This checklist covers deduplication, culling, review parameters, and production format — decided early, not mid-review.

5. Close out matters cleanly with post-production planning

Most checklists stop at production. This one covers loading opposing counsel productions and transcripts into your review platform, and whether data stays online, goes offline, or gets archived. 

What's inside:

• A phase-by-phase framework from Nextpoint's Client Success team, covering the full matter lifecycle
• Practical guidance on legal hold management, data source mapping, and review workflow decisions
• A checklist you can apply to your next matter today

A detailed case management plan is one of the highest-leverage investments you can make at the start of a matter. It makes ediscovery more efficient, reduces disputes, and gets your team to the most relevant information faster — saving your clients time and money.