Electronic Discovery Navigator

Picking an Outsourcing Partner

Picking an Outsourcing Partner

"Today's choices include domestic work centers located outside of expensive major metropolitan areas. Electronic discovery firm Discover-e Legal, for example, offers software for law firms to do their own work, or will tackle offsite projects as an outsourcer and deliver the results electronically from a secure facility based in Portland, Ore. Then there are options, like EmPower Research, that use workers in countries such as India, where a large, educated and relatively inexpensive pool of English-speakers can work into the United States' night shift.

Since a decade ago, when many firms began shifting their messenger, mail, duplication and maintenance services to vendors who provided on-site workers, firm administrators have had to contend with contract negotiation, security, and in many cases, the blending of in-house and contracted workers in a single facility. Now, add to those concerns the fact that contemporary outsourcing often means dealing with a vendor whose employees you may never see."

Servient Forms New Computer Forensics Division -- Leading Computer Forensic Professionals to Head New Division

Servient Forms New Computer Forensics Division -- Leading Computer Forensic Professionals to Head New Division

"Servient Inc. announced today the formation of a computer forensics division to be known as Servient Forensics. Servient also announced the appointment of two seasoned computer forensics professionals to lead the new division's strategies and operations. Erica Garrison, CFE, EnCe, will serve as Senior Director of Electronic Discovery and Computer Forensics Services and Brian Larsen, EnCe, will serve as Director of Computer Forensics. The convergence of electronic discovery and computer forensics in the market lead Servient to this strategic decision.

"Electronic discovery and computer forensic disciplines are quickly consolidating," commented Servient's CEO, Ian Wilson. "In many recent engagements we have seen increasing requests for forensic collection and analysis in matters that were once considered straight electronic discovery projects, and cases that start with forensic analysis requests often evolve into high-volume electronic discovery matters. The increasing sophistication of litigators in the discovery of electronic evidence has resulted in an escalating demand for advanced, reliable solutions," Wilson continued, "and Servient Forensics rounds out Servient's market-leading offering."

Garrison brings significant computer forensics experience to Servient having directed numerous computer forensics and large electronic discovery projects, as well as fraud investigations. Garrison is a graduate of Texas A&M University and is a Certified Fraud Examiner and holds a computer forensics certification. She is a past president and current board member of the Houston, Texas chapter of the High Technology Investigation Association. "I have worked with Servient on many cases in the past and I am thrilled to join Servient. The Discovery Compass, Servient's online review system, is clearly the leading offering in the market and presents a powerful platform for us to deliver computer forensic projects in a market-changing way," Garrison noted."

Firefighting Lawyers and the Burning Issues of Legal Hold

Firefighting Lawyers and the Burning Issues of Legal Hold

"Most organizations are under the misimpression that by simply maintaining a generic legal hold policy, they will avoid any adverse consequences in litigation. Those organizations are wrong. In fact, one could have a brilliant legal hold plan and still face sanctions if it fails to address the downstream process. Legal hold is actually only the first step.

In the wake of recent court rulings, the business community is facing the reality that discovery is becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Organizations that cannot defend their practices in court are almost certain to waste resources and face an uphill battle before a judge. This modern complexity warrants a repeatable, consistent and defensible process, which is only possible through automation.

Armed with this understanding, entities with hundreds of cases pending simultaneously and hundreds or thousands of potential document custodians are still supervising their entire effort with Excel spreadsheets. They need to quickly implement a proactive solution in the present or face a radioactive problem in the future."

Sherpa Software Releases New Version of Archiving Software Archive Attender®

Sherpa Software Releases New Version of Archiving Software Archive Attender®

""'PST Files, archiving and e-discovery continue to be major concerns for legal teams, HR and administrators,' says Balaji Srinivasan, Director of New Product Development, Sherpa Software. "In Archive Attender 3.2 we used our extensive PST file expertise to streamline and automate as much of the PST management and archiving process as possible, making the arduous task of centralizing and searching the data contained within the potentially thousands of PST files in an organization much more efficient."

Archive Attender 3.2's ability to locate PST files and automatically assign ownership, combined with its improved processing of Outlook PST files, assists companies in addressing e-discovery (electronically stored information which could be relevant evidence in a lawsuit), storage, information security and compliance requirements as they may relate to regulations such as SOX, the new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and others. This administrator-driven solution enforces email archiving policies that effectively archive Exchange email and attachments from mailboxes, the Journal mailbox, PST Files and Public Folders without requiring a SQL database or proprietary hardware thus protecting corporate assets, reducing administration time/expense and mitigating potential liabilities."

Web at work: Not YourSpace

Web at work: Not YourSpace

"Security and legal liability are also huge issues.

“The organizations that are concerned about the amount of employee time spent (on the Web) and actual content of keystrokes, their concerns revolve around not only productivity, but security,” said Flynn.

“They’re concerned that the Internet sites their employees are viewing, or the images that they’re downloading, uploading, printing or e-mailing, are going to trigger lawsuits. That’s the No. 1 concern.”

At the end of 2006, Flynn said, the federal court system amended rules of federal civil procedure so that “all electronically stored information is subject to discovery in litigation."

If a company is the target of a lawsuit by an employee, all electronic records stored by the company, including what Web sites employees have visited, "can be subpoenaed and used as evidence to support or damage the company's case," she said.

The federal rule 'really made clear to all employers that all online activity creates essentially the electronic equivalent of DNA evidence," she said. "You need to keep your online employees in line.'"

Defendant Dodges an EDD Bullet

Defendant Dodges an EDD Bullet

"While the courts are becoming more familiar with the legal and technical issues arising from electronic discovery, there is still no shortage of perplexing "e-issues" confronting judges. In a recent decision rendered by Eastern District Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay in Toussie v. County of Suffolk, 2007 WL 4565160, the court was admittedly "challenged to reconcile a party's obligation to preserve relevant evidence with the unique nuances of electronically stored information."

More specifically, Lindsay had to determine whether the Suffolk County "should be penalized for losing and/or destroying its e-mails" as requested in discovery and as otherwise relevant to the case."

Recommind Selected as Finalist for 2008 Codie Award

Recommind Selected as Finalist for 2008 Codie Award

"Recommind, a leading provider of enterprise search, automatic categorization and eDiscovery systems for enterprises and law firms, today announced that the company’s MindServer™ Enterprise Search product has been selected as a finalist in the category of “Best Enterprise Search Engine” for the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)’s 23rd Annual Codie Awards. The coveted “Best Enterprise Search Engine” Codie Award recognizes MindServer Enterprise Search as a solution that best brings relevant information to users through the use of sophisticated indexing and retrieval tools within corporate networks, intranets or portals.

“Recommind is honored that MindServer Enterprise Search is being recognized by SIIA as a leading enterprise search solution” said Robert Tennant, CEO at Recommind. “MindServer Enterprise Search is powered by sophisticated, patented machine learning techniques that automatically deliver highly relevant results with maximum context, making information useful and actionable to knowledge workers. And as a conceptual search technology, our system works the way our customers do – by allowing users to find the information they seek whether or not they get the keywords exactly right. We are proud of the technology we have built and very pleased that the industry is validating our hard work and innovation.”

Recommind’s MindServer platform is a comprehensive software suite that integrates an enterprise’s numerous applications and information repositories, enabling fast, easy access to relevant information. The platform substantially reduces the time and costs involved in searching, while improving the quality of work delivered to the end client. Using patented search technology, MindServer dramatically improves access to a wide variety of information across large, distributed organizations and returns results in context for more accurate understanding and ‘actionability’ of the information. Recommind’s enterprise search technology specifically utilizes powerful concept-based search capabilities to connect relevant information in document management, records management, portal and e-mail systems and myriad other applications and databases with the users that need it."

Media Companies Need to Address New Document Retention-Confidentiality Dilemma

Media Companies Need to Address New Document Retention-Confidentiality Dilemma

"'Media companies that have not updated their document retention policies to reflect today’s technologies may find it difficult to successfully defend themselves against a defamation or invasion-of-privacy lawsuit or to protect confidential sources" said Ken Goldstein, assistant vice president, Chubb & Son, and worldwide media liability manager for Chubb Specialty Insurance.

New e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure acknowledge that information stored on email, voice mail, flash drives, MP3 players, editorial document management systems, system backup tapes and other devices is discoverable. Without the proper protocols in place, media companies can face a variety of dilemmas when responding to subpoenas for electronically-stored information, including retrieving it and exposing confidential reporter sources and other private information."

E-Discovery Guru Not Yet Wed to XML

E-Discovery Guru Not Yet Wed to XML

"I want to love XML. I want to embrace it with the passion of my wiser colleagues, excited by its schemas, titillated by its well-formed code, flushed from its pull-parsing. I want to love XML as much as the cool kids do. So why does it leave me cold?

I want XML the dragon slayer: all the functionality of native electronic evidence coupled with the ease of identification, reliable redaction and intelligibility of paper documents. The promise is palpable; but for now, XML is just a clever replacement for load files, those clumsy Sancho Panzas that serve as squire to addled TIFF image productions. Maybe that's reason enough to love XML.

XML is eXtensible Markup Language, an unfamiliar name for a familiar technology. Markup languages are coded identifiers paired with text and other information. They can define the appearance of content, like the reveal-codes screen of Corel Inc.'s WordPerfect documents. They also serve to tag content to distinguish whether 09011957 is a birth date (09/01/1957), a phone number (0-901-1957) or a Bates number. Plus, markup languages allow machines to talk to each other in ways humans understand."

Innovative Discovery Selects Dataupia as the Data Management System for Its eDiscovery Solution

Innovative Discovery Selects Dataupia as the Data Management System for Its eDiscovery Solution

" Dataupia Corporation today announced that Innovative Discovery has selected the Dataupia™ Satori Server to power its Electronic Data Discovery (EDD) solution. Dataupia will allow Innovative Discovery to increase access to electronic evidence for civil and criminal litigation and compliance discovery data sets, which are increasingly large and complex.

Innovative Discovery provides customers with evidence capture consulting, digital forensics and electronic document discovery services. With electronic media now the main element of evidentiary documents, law firms and corporations have seen an exponential increase in the volume of data they need to access and manage. Because they need to collect and process evidence quickly and accurately, it is vital that data is delivered immediately and in a usable format. The Dataupia Satori Server's scalability and transparent integration with existing data management infrastructures enable Innovative Discovery to efficiently handle growing data volumes while delivering the high performance solution that the digital legal services sector demands.

In addition to affordability and ease-of-use, Innovative Discovery was attracted to the Dataupia Satori Server's Omniversal™ Transparency layer, which ensures compatibility with existing infrastructures. Dataupia's seamless implementation removes limits on storage capacity and enhances all dependant applications. In addition, the Dataupia Satori Server provides persistent access to data by allowing multiple users to concurrently process complex queries against massive amounts of data."