In 2026, Organizations are faced with dozens of tools that promise to harness the power of artificial intelligence to make data-driven tasks such as eDiscovery and information governance easier than ever. However, organizations must proactively work legal defensibility into their information governance and eDiscovery workflows or face consequences from courts and regulators for violating applicable laws. Simply put, legal defensibility is the ability for an organization to demonstrate that the actions it took comply with applicable laws and legal holds. The tools offered by vendors rely on legal counsel and end users to make sure they are used in a legally defensible manner, which means an organization should not procure a tool and point it at its data without a framework to ensure compliance. Indeed, aligning workflows with applicable laws, regulations, and evolving case law helps ensure that data decisions can be clearly explained and justified when scrutiny arises.

Integrating legal defensibility into eDiscovery and IG workflows requires close collaboration between legal counsel, IT, compliance, and business stakeholders to create a framework that works for an organization and does not violate the law. Unfortunately, many organizations do not consider defensibility until it is too late – when they are scrambling to justify their actions to a court or regulator. For a framework to be successful, policies need to be thoughtfully drafted and the right stakeholders need to be engaged to ensure they are implemented in daily operations. These proactive measures will allow an organization to confidently face litigation, investigations, and regulatory inquiries when they occur.

If your organization would like to work defensibility into its operations, our team is ready to assist. At CODISCOVR, we deliver client-focused, defensible solutions that are tailored to each organization’s specific needs. Reach out to Nicholas Berenato, Information Governance Principal, CODISCOVR. Nick is an attorney that collaborates with clients to address legal and financial exposure from their information assets through information governance. He develops strategies and policies to enable clients to effectively manage their data in a manner that minimizes costs and allows clients to leverage their data to support their business processes.