The Importance Of EDiscovery Consulting

By Edward Nelson


Due to the pervasiveness of technology, they often wound their way into the minutiae of our day to day lives. Even in the least unlikely places, like courtrooms. That is not to be wondered at, though. Since technology is everywhere at once, they often end up as important pieces of evidence. Images, videos, and audios are regarded as hard facts and concrete pieces of information. If you find yourself in some legal imbroglio with all the technological hodgepodge to worry about, you might want to think about hiring Ediscovery Consulting.

It is more or less axiomatic to say that digital evidence is the most reliable form of testimony. Videos and voicemails, for example, seem like a clincher. If you see or hear defendants do or say compromising things in these digital forums, judgment is on an instant roll because, after all, digital data do not lie.

Wrong. Digital data get discounted by courts everyday for a number of reasons. They can be tampered, twisted, and misapprehended by the jury. Adversely, irrelevant details may get blown out of proportion. Or on the other hand, the absence of certain data and documents can lead to mistrials and other liabilities that could have otherwise been avoided.

Electronic discovery is all about manipulating electronically stored information, abbreviated ESI, which is pretty much every info generated, received, and gathered by some or other electronic means. It is used to source, manage, and secure given documents so that they can be accordingly archived. ESI includes images, videos, voicemails, documents, emails, social platforms, and computer programs.

Electronic discovery is different from other processes of gathering evidence. There are challenges unique to this procedure. First off, data extraction can take a long time because they are usually stored in hefty volumes, so they have to be meticulously filtered out. They also have to be well organized and stored securely, so that it is ensured that they will not be tampered with.

The consultancy also work double as custodians who research all the nuts and bolts of all the retrievable metadata, such as when they were generated or modified and somesuch. Irrelevant info is expunged, and the relevant ones are optimized and compiled into a handy format, like a PDF. This information is placed in a legal and special hold status so that it cannot be altered or destroyed.

Complex technology applies a unique code to the metadata to determine that they have not at all been modified and accessed by persons who are not authorized. Custodians are in a tiptoe venture in making sure that the records are not in any way lost or corrupted. The whole process ranges all the way from the identification, to the collection, the processing, and the production of data.

The location of important evidence, and accordingly optimizing or expunging them depending on the interests of your client, is very much the mainstay of litigation. An effective approach can cut back legal budgets and speed up processes. Partnered with the right service provider, eDiscovery can make all the difference to strengthen your case.

eDiscovery is not just another software or technology. It is a whole progression of systems and techniques. Scratch that, it is more of a science, and with enough practice and learning, its methodology can be understood. The operative words here are leverage and optimization, and both of which can help clients achieve the best legal outcomes.




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