The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has posted a checklist on its site, for parties to consult when addressing ESI issues at Rule 26(f) meet and confer.

The preservation of ESI concerns not only ascertaining a relevant date range and the identity of relevant custodians, but preparing a list of systems that contain data not associated with individual custodians and deciding to stop data destruction programs.

The parties should prioritize discovery from specific systems - whether it be email, accounting or other systems.

A specific e-discovery liaison should be appointed.

In weighing whether or not the cost of electronic discovery will be proportional to the amount of claims involved, the parties should consider sharing an e-discovery vendor and using a common platform to host their data.

The ESI for the custodians most likely to have relevant data should be in the first phases of discovery.

The production should not degrade the, "inherent searchablility of ESI".