Electronic Discovery Navigator

Review E-Discovery to Reduce Spoliation Risks

Review E-Discovery to Reduce Spoliation Risks

"Have you ever been lucky enough to experience the feeling that comes over you when you learn that your client did not retain e-mails that are pertinent to litigation, whether it be that the e-mails were simply deleted or that your client's computer crashed three years ago and sent potentially relevant e-mails straight into Dante's eighth circle of hell? Quite an unsettling feeling. Despite counsel's best efforts, preservation of electronic information seems to be a constant sore spot in complex litigation.

In a post-Zubulake and Morgan Stanley world, where the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect well over a year ago, the struggle with how to best manage electronic data discovery continues. See Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, 229 F.R.D 422 (S.D.N.Y. 2004); see Coleman Holdings v. Morgan Stanley, 2005 WL 679071 (Fla.Cir.Ct. March 1, 2005)."

Mimosa Announces Support of EDRM XML Standard for Easy Transfer of Information

Mimosa Announces Support of EDRM XML Standard for Easy Transfer of Information

"Mimosa Systems, a leader in live content archiving solutions, today announced its support of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) standard developed by the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) for the easy transfer of electronically stored information (ESI) throughout all phases of the eDiscovery process. The standard – created by electronic discovery software and services providers, law firms and corporations – provides a uniform format for the exchange of content and metadata between different applications, systems, and organizations involved in the eDiscovery process.

Mimosa will support the EDRM XML within its NearPointTM platform to extend archived content into downstream review and analytics applications. The company is collaborating with FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm, to certify that archived content stored in native format can be transformed according to the XML specification and ingested into the FTI Ringtail review and analytics platform without compromising the integrity of the content, maintaining chain of custody throughout the eDiscovery process."

Poorly Executed Privilege Review Can Lead to Waiver

Poorly Executed Privilege Review Can Lead to Waiver

"Slowly but surely, U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm is writing a treatise on electronic discovery. In Hopson v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore,[FOOTNOTE 1] he tackled privilege waiver and warned litigants about the risks of so-called "quick peek" and "claw back" agreements. And in Lorraine v. Markel Amer. Ins.,[FOOTNOTE 2] he reminded lawyers to think critically about the admissibility of electronically-stored information. In his latest ruling, Victor Stanley Inc. v. Creative Pipe Inc., 2008 WL 2221841 (D. Md. May 29, 2008), Grimm revisits the privilege waiver issues at the heart of Hopson and wades into the debate over search methodologies. In the end, his privilege ruling is no surprise and his comments on search methodologies will do little to calm those who are concerned that recent decisions could require litigants to hire experts to defend their chosen search methodology."

Three Steps to a Safe Harbor for ESI

Three Steps to a Safe Harbor for ESI

"What makes ESI so challenging is its volatility. By its very nature, ESI easily can be modified, overwritten or deleted by normal, everyday use. Routine acts like recycling backup tapes, opening and closing a file, rebooting a computer, modifying a document or running a daily maintenance program can alter or permanently destroy data. Take those intrinsic qualities, and add the "human factor" and common realities such as the increased volume of data, disorganized or nonexistent record retention practices, numerous storage locations of ESI and routine purging, and you have what amounts to a formula for a disaster waiting to happen. "

RenewData Unveils Industry's First Archiving Solution to Enable Consolidation, Storage, and Management of All Historical ESI

RenewData Unveils Industry's First Archiving Solution to Enable Consolidation, Storage, and Management of All Historical ESI

"RenewData, the leading provider of e-discovery and electronically stored information risk management (ESIRM(TM)) services, today announced the industry's first evidence archiving solution which enables clients to have better insight into their most at-risk data. Corporations that have inherited inventories of backup tapes through M&A or have disparate legacy archives, as well as those that face frequent litigation are learning that the most at-risk data they have is historical data on unmanaged backup or other storage media. In order to address legal and compliance requirements, these corporations need greater visibility and control of this data, and ActiveVault 4.0 gives them this level of service. This service further extends RenewData's strategy of providing clients with proactive risk management solutions through its other services for Data Migrations and Backup Tape Liability Management."

Autonomy announces scalable end-to-end hosted eDiscovery solution

Autonomy announces scalable end-to-end hosted eDiscovery solution

"Autonomy Corporation plc., a global vendor of infrastructure software for the enterprise, introduced Wednesday its scalable end-to-end hosted eDiscovery solution. With 6,000 servers across five data centers, Autonomy is providing hosted eDiscovery solutions for large and complex legal and regulatory matters. Autonomy applies advanced technology in its hosting centers, including analytics for Early Case Assessment (ECA), automatic categorization for prioritizing eDiscovery Review, language independence for international cases, and audio support required for financial services and subprime litigation cases.

Autonomy offers infrastructure software for the enterprise and is spearheading the meaning-based computing movement. Autonomy's technology forms a conceptual and contextual understanding of any piece of electronic data, including unstructured information, be it text, email, voice or video. Autonomy's software offers complete spectrum of mission-critical enterprise applications, including information access technology, BI, CRM, KM, call center solutions, media management, information risk management solutions and security applications."

IT Departments Now Leading Targets of Lawsuits, Attorneys Say

IT Departments Now Leading Targets of Lawsuits, Attorneys Say

"Ziff said data must be purged as part of a regular policy, not in response to a suit or fear of a suit. A company must also have a policy that keeps data from being purged as soon as it finds out a lawsuit is filed, or even if there is reasonable knowledge by company executives that one might be filed.

Heidi Maher, an attorney who practices e-discovery and compliance for Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC Corp., said the average cost of sorting through e-mails to determine such things as their relevance to a case or if they might be protected by attorney-client privilege is $2 per e-mail, so the first thing a company should do is to establish an e-mail retention and destruction policy and abide by it."

E-Discovery Tips From the Bench

E-Discovery Tips From the Bench

"Judges say that if lawyers have business clients they expect to represent in court, it is important to understand the file formats clients use, the metadata, or hidden information in those files, how many PDAs, laptops and servers they own, and who is in charge of them. They should also know whom to contact to preserve digital records without interrupting business. Most importantly, judges say to make sure that clients have a policy regulating how digital records are kept and destroyed and that they make an effort to implement that policy."

Ethics Of Destruction And Inadvertent Disclosure Of Documents And ESI

Ethics Of Destruction And Inadvertent Disclosure Of Documents And ESI

"Attorneys are obligated to maintain their client files on behalf of their clients. Although attorneys do not need to maintain their files indefinitely, they must maintain documents and information that, for example, might be relevant to reasonably anticipated litigation.

Clients have an ownership interest in portions of the lawyer's file and a right to access the client file. (See Model Rule 1.15(a) of Professional Conduct.) Which items in a client's file are the client's property will depend on the scope of the engagement, the jurisdiction and any agreement that exists between the parties. This determination takes on heightened significance, in terms of potential cost and obligation, in connection with electronically stored information (ESI) because e-mail and other electronic information exists in multiple "places" and in multiple forms. "

Why Your Business May Be At Risk . . .

Why Your Business May Be At Risk . . .

"Nearly all of the information now being created and stored by businesses is being created and stored electronically. Paper files and multiple versions of hard copy are becoming a thing of the past. It is no wonder that federal and state courts have amended procedural rules to recognize this trend, and included new obligations on lawyers and businesses (no matter how big or small) regarding electronically stored information ("ESI").

The impact of these new court rules goes far beyond those lawyers and businesses actively involved in a lawsuit; yet businesses continue to remain unprepared to manage these new ESI obligations. In fact, a recent survey of 200 United States commercial businesses conducted by Canvasse Opinion found that almost half of the companies do not have a strategy or policy in place on how to deal with ESI in litigation or in internal investigations. "