Survey: federal agencies don't trust their e-discovery programs.

• Position: GOVERNMENT RECORDS - Brief article

Three-quarters of U.S. federal agency legal and record management teams say they lack confidence in the quality of their e-discovery programs, according to a survey.

Deloitte's "Ninth Annual Benchmarking Study of Electronic Discovery Practices for Government Agencies" reveals that agencies are getting better at responding to the ever-increasing number of requests to produce electronically stored information (ESI). But when it comes to defending those records before opposing lawyers or Congress, three out of four said they were "not confident" their agency could demonstrate their ESI is "accurate, accessible, complete, and trustworthy."

However, the majority (85%) of respondents said they were more confident, or just as confident, as they were a year ago in their ability to manage e-discovery demands.

This apparent contradiction suggests two concurrent trends, said Chris May, a principal with Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics. Agencies are gaining more experience with e-discovery tools and thus are more confident in their abilities to manage ESI-related inquiries. Yet they are also...