What is E-discovery?
E-discovery procedures are used to seek, locate, secure and investigate digital data. It is used to gather evidence in civil and criminal proceedings. In the past, attorneys would store any case details that they had as a hardcopy. However, with the advancement in technology, they have been able to switch to using digital records. This is very useful as digital records are almost indestructible and therefore enable firms who deal with volatile situations to keep their material safe.
The e-discovery service allows an attorney to extract and reject digital data, helping them to prepare their case and collect strong evidence. The e-discovery procedure is a long process, starting before the lawsuit has been filed and not ending until after the digital evidence has been submitted.
There are six steps which are involved in using the EDRM, the electronic discovery reference model.
1) Guiding the e-discovery process using an information governance
This step involves using a multidisciplinary system to work on a range of policies and procedure. It works towards preserving any electronically stored information (ESI) to use in future legal, environmental, operational or regulatory requirements. If the information governance works well it will eliminate any ESI without a business value, storing relevant information, and ensuring proper management.
2) Identifying the data and any search parameters
To collect relevant date an attorney will maintain certain parameters, gathering the data found as a result and taking them into their legal possession. As the attorneys on both sides will be conducting the search, they will set the search parameters and negotiate them with the opposing party. This will stop them discovering anything that will not classify as evidence.
3) Using legal counsels to secure and share ESI
After forensic experts are able to secure any ESI date, will may be compromising, they transfer it to the legal counsel. This date includes texts, metadata, chats, emails, documents, websites, accounts, and blogs.
4) Organizing and analyzing the data; converting them into a format which is secure
To process and eliminate duplicates, the legal counsels will index any data that they are given. They will also covert it into a format, such as PDF or TIFF, to secure it and prevent tampering. The ESI allows the attorneys to rapidly identify date using key words or chronology.
After this, they will review their information to estimate how relevant it may, or how they can use it to their advantage. The counsels will work to form a pattern, using the persons communication.
5) Adherence to the production process policy
In an attempt to ensure that guidelines are polices are followed strictly, the counsels will exchange any generated information will the oppositions counsels.
6) Presenting the data in court
Finally, the ESI will be presented in court. In this stop the council will try to persuade the court about any evidence they have gathered.
E-discovery Benefits
The support services for E-discovery work to ensure that EDRM procedures are observed strictly, while collecting and processing date. It is faster than the more traditional methods. It also benefits the firms helping to cut costs and the duration of the legal process, which will ensure that justice is delivered swiftly.
Liz Sanders is a passionate teacher and a divorcee. During her divorce, she availed services of this website for child custody and has since been glad she did.