E-Discovery Miami Trends

One of the most trending topics on the internet and the courts currently is e-discovery. Most people; experts and novices, are equally speculating that it will revolutionize all sectors of the economy within the next two decades. In more practical ways than not, such claims are proving to be true. However, one disadvantage is that there are now many half-baked electronic discovery experts who have tossed their feet in this profession and they are minting a lot of money by providing substandard services to various clients. But careful companies and institutions need to search for accredited computer forensics experts with a great track record.

Puzzling statistics from the IBM suggest that more than 90 percent of the digital data being used today has been created in the last decade only. This indicated how important digital devices have become with regard to carrying out business operations. However, sifting massive data for purposes of investigations or analysis has not been easy. That is the reason why organizations are now hiring the services of data scientists and forensic analysts. Such experts guide you to get hold of what you need in terms of data.

The approach to electronic discovery has particularly become more organic in this era because forensic experts have numerous tools at their proposal to assist the document review team in developing new ways for searching documents. The analysis usually presents a very analytical case that suits the needs of the attorney with regard to the case at hand. 

Keyword Search

An important aspect in electronic discovery is the use of keyword search to locate certain files and document in a hard drive or the registry. But it is important to note that there are some documents that cannot be found in an operating system by the use of keyword search because of encryption or their location of storage. To address this challenge, experts have come up with technology assisted review (TAR) tools that can be used to locate important documents which cannot be traced through keyword research.

E-Discovery Miami experts are particularly using concept searching to find the intent of documents being searched through contextual clues. Instead of simply picking keywords, they apply advanced contextual clues to reduce or eradicate the total number of false positives thus making the review more efficient because this technique helps to deal with common acronyms, homonyms and synonyms effectively.

Predictive Coding

Predictive coding helps forensics investigators to point out large sets of data. It works through relying on reviewers to help in coding a set of documents through careful categorization. Predictive coding assists in analyzing the documents before determining whether the rest will also be coded in a similar manner. This ensures that the document review becomes more efficient because the coders end up verifying the coding and authenticity of a document.

Flat fee pricing for electronic discovery services

Different electronic discovery service providers and vendors have been using various approaches in charging their clients. Usually, they were determining the total cost of services through a mix of traditional billing methods. However, they are taking the approach of a flat fee rate because of the increasing number of competitors in the field and the complexity of determining the exact cost through court processes. This has been both a cost and time saving technique on both sides of the divide. The cost is reducing further given the development of software tools and techniques that work under one package.

Emails are no longer the top e-discovery priority

In the past ten years, it has been observed in the US courts of law that company and individual emails were the fundamental source of evidence in the e-discovery process. Emails were important because they form the official form of communication between colleagues, departments and other organizations. However, it has now been observed that important details are also found in Microsoft Office, other similar applications and various databases. Inclusion of company databases has helped litigators to focus on theft and alteration of intellectual property and related rights. If an employee leaves a company for another or to startup their own company, customer databases are always a special interest and target for data theft. Therefore, databases and other applications apart from emails have become paramount in the process of electronic discovery. 

Increased sanctions for e-discovery blunders

In the past ten years, costly mistakes have been made by small and large institutions because of a few electronic discovery blunders in the process of discovery. For instance, SanDisk was requested by the opposing counsel in a court of law to produce hard disk images which two of its former employees were using. It happened that the company had already put away the computers that these employees were using in compliance with an applicable legal hold. However, they went ahead to move information in the disks to their own servers because they wanted to use these computers—an action which led to loss of data from their servers. The judge ended up sanctioning SanDisk, not because they were unable to find the data they wanted from their own servers, not because of data recovery process which was applied but because they never foresaw that such data which would be needed in future stood a chance of loss or alteration in their servers. This caused the plaintiff to endure a longer delay period beyond anticipation and estimation thus leading to being sanctioned by the court.
In order to solve the problem of increasing court sanctions, companies are advised to develop sound procedures and operational policies to assist them in handling electronic discovery issues in accordance with the law as and when they arise.

Legal hold in electronic discovery

Information management is highly trending when it comes to electronic discovery for organizations. It is deemed as the perfect solution to a myriad of problems and challenges that have been faced in the recent parts particularly in courts of law. Many firms are facing significant problems including regulatory compliance in technology-based and related decisions. However, others relate to information flow and storage especially within an organization.

But the most fundamental aspect to consider is the information management system’s ability to create substantial legal hold for information. In case a company or member of staff is a special party in a litigation process then all significant documents should be prior preserved properly in order to avoid spoliation of evidence. To stay on the safer side, companies are advised to pursue data loss prevention mechanisms so as to preserve and ensure the security of any significant company information.

Increasing scope of electronic discovery

The scope of electronic discovery is currently on the persistent rise because of the increasing significance of the process involved. While many litigators and companies are complaining that the scope should be cut down, the courts are even increasing it further because of the accuracy of information gathered as a result. More discoverable these days are social media accounts. The courts have ordered employees on several counts to provide the login details of their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts so that some essential information can be traced. The scope now also includes text messages and other gadgets that employees and the society at large use to chat. If the person in question is a writer or blogger then all content has to be inspected for hate speech.

Project management has become an integral part of electronic discovery

This is not just any other project but a legal project. Before engaging in any project management task, the project manager needs to scale down and define appropriate methodology and ensure thorough documentation of processes to be used. When the electronic discovery rules of an organization or courts change then the project manager should also make necessary changes in order to align with the court process requirements. If the company has hired a legal project manager who is not sensitive to these changes then as a company you will not be able to implement the requested changes—posing you a great risk of being sanctioned by the courts.

E-Discovery jobs are on the rise

E-Discovery Miami trends are endless, given the nature of growth and dynamism associated with electronic discovery. Are you an enthusiastic lawyer with a hard passion for IT or an IT guru who has a special interest in legal processes? If you belong to any of these categories then electronic discovery and computer forensics is the best career choice you can possibly make. Jobs in electronic discovery encompass company management, identification and purchase of the right forensic software, collection and preservation of evidence, analysis, documentation, transportation and presentation of evidence in a court of law among others. You can also choose to become a consultant in electronic discovery matters.

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What Is E-Discovery Miami?

With the birth of the personal computer and the internet, there came a wide variety of online communication channels, electronic data formats andtechnological services.Individuals from all around the world and from virtually all walks of life are collectively utilizing hundreds of thousands, if not literally millions of electronic devices every day.

As a result, whether they know it or not, they are inadvertently creating an electronic footprint that, if the need arises, can be used for or against them as evidence.

Electronic discovery, otherwise simply known as E-discovery, simply refers to any and all procedures or processes that aid in the; identification, preservation, collection, processing and final review or any form of electronic data. However, in order to be truly classified as “E-discovery”, these aforementioned procedures need to be carried out with the intent of ultimately using any data that is collected to support a legal case (whether criminal or civil).

Some of the more prominent examples of data that is usually retrieved by E-Discovery Miami techniques are: word processor documents, emails, history from web browsers, instant messages and chat logs.

How Is E-Discovery Handled By The Law?

Even though electronic devices have been utilized for both business and personal use for decades now, it was not until late in the year 2006 that E-discovery actually became an official legal expression under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Under this aforementioned designation it is explicitly stated that any prospective E-discovery evidence should be preserved and processed whenever it is deemed pertinent.

The type of evidence that theseE-discovery techniques covered upon the implementation of these laws included emails and electronic documents. However, this was soon after expanded to include more modernized methods of communication such as instant messaging. 

Identification

While this is only the initial phase, it can however be argued that in reality it is the most important. This refers to any and all of the processes by which the electronic data is scrutinized to figure out if it is worth saving, collecting and reviewing later on.

This of course means searching the devices and databases that the entity under investigation may have used. However, at other times, service providers and third party data hosts may need to be identified and contacted for their records and data as well.

In order to guarantee that all possible sources of data are identified and perused thoroughly advanced information technology techniques, such as data mapping, are utilized. However, whether or not it is one system or multiple databases that are being investigated, the sheer magnitude of the amount of data can be extremely vast and overwhelming. 

Because of this, various efforts are made to tighten the scope of the identification period by using specific search parameters or looking at the date range of specific data.

Preservation

After all pertinent data has been identified and highlighted; it is then retained in what is known as a “legal hold’. This safeguards the identified data from being illegally tampered with or even destroyed. While in theory this procedure might seem simple enough, in reality extra precautionary measures must be taken to make certain that the end result of this process is invulnerability so that there is absolutely no way that loss or destruction of data can occur.

Extra care must be taken during these initial stages of the E-discovery process. If there is any unintentional (or intentional) alteration of the pertinent data; the entire E-discovery process could be ruined.

Collection

When all relevant data and documents has been identified and preserved the step that follows is the actual collectionprocedure.This sets the stage for the final half of the E-discovery process since the collection procedure actually refers to the gathering together of the previously specified data,so that it can be easily and effectively processed and reviewed by official litigators and digital forensic experts.

The specific techniques and measures used during the collection procedure, as well as its overall scope and magnitude, are determined by the amount of data identified and preserved beforehand.

Processing

After all collection procedures have been taken care of the stage is then set so that processing stage can begin. During this processing stage the information from the original files is copied and extracted so that they can then be utilized on dedicated review arrangements. The extracted information is not only text based; often times it consists of relevant

• Administrative metadata – how and when the data was created, file types, access history and privileges 
• Structural metadata – how the data is put together and organized
• Descriptive metadata – keywords, title, author

In an effort to lessen the amount of work that needs to be done in the subsequent steps of the E-discovery process various techniques are implemented. One such major technique is the deduplication of informationto avoid having to sift through literal identical copies of information.

In addition to all of this, certain documents and files may be copied and converted to formats that are easier to interpret and understand (e.g. pdf) as long as the content is not altered in any way. Depending on the nature of the case and data itself, processing can be an extremely lengthy process.

Review

When all of the data has finally been thoroughly processed, what remains is finally reviewed. The data is reviewed with certain parameters in place that will check its receptiveness to various set criteria that are relevant to the case and legal guidelines and privilege. 

Information that is needed is highlighted, cataloged and noted so that it can be shared with key individuals and brought up in legal related dialogue if it is needed. Information is still sorted by parameters such as dates and keywords and it is removed or kept based on whether or not it remains relevant.

Production and Presentation

After the entire reviewing process has been completed, the collected and sorted data is finally delivered to the customary appropriate entities or individuals. If no further issues arise from this it is then brought before the required legal audiences and presented.

What Does This All Mean?

Electronic data exists in a world away from traditional hardcopy evidence. This fact is only more highlighted by the sheer magnitude of the amount of time and effort that goes into finding, collecting, preparing and reviewing electronic data. In addition to all of this, electronic information is always accompanied by “hidden” metadata and properties that often times can far exceed the quantity of the data that it represents and is much more complicated to decipher. Also, extra care has to be taken to ensure that throughout the entire E-Discovery Miami process the data is not tampered with in any way, so that it remains relevant and pristine.

Conclusion

Even though the above procedure has been overly simplified;writing about the ins and outs of E-discovery could fill up numerous books (and it has), it still speaks true about the exceedingly complex and technical nature of the field. 

As it relates to the corporate world, employers should ensure that they take the time to educate their employees on how to properly deal with ESI (electronically stored information) and subsequently inform them about the detrimental effects that not doing so may have on the business and their livelihood. This means that they should always be fully aware of how they are making changes to company documents and files, with whom they are sharing them with and on what devices they view or edit them on. 

Likewise, there is also an added risk when personal accounts; such as email accounts or social networking accounts (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), are linked to corporate systems. Logs and metadata from these accounts will almost certainly be stored on corporate systems, meaning that any implications that arise around these accounts may also affect the corporation as a whole. Matters concerning corporations and electronically stored information are often times placed under much more scrutiny when compared to personal matters. 

This is because corporations have to abide by a much more comprehensive list of rules and guidelines that relate to their information management policies. In the event of discrepancies they have to answer to not only legal authorities; they also have to answer to official government entities as well.

For more information please visit:

• ·         Evolution of E-discovery
• ·         Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure
• ·         E-discovery Today