E-Discovery Process

The e-discovery process takes a systematic approach to preserve and collect all the ESI. Once the production is completed, the data is converted into a form that allows efficient review by the attorney. The typical production form is a load set in Summation, Concordance or other case management systems.

Following is a summary of the process:

Data to consider

  • E-Mail – Consult with the client’s IT contact as to the structure of the e-mail system at each facility. E-mail may reside on the server or on local hard drives or both.
  • User Files – These are the files that reside on the hard drive and typically consist of the office suites programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. These files can also be found on the server in assigned private space or in folders within the public server locations.
  • Backup Media – This is a critical element and typically the most complicated of the production process. It is critical that you understand the corporate backup procedures and identify where tapes are stored. The process the combing of several backup tapes is where most of the duplicate documents occur.
  • Other Gagets – External drives, Mini hard drives, MP3 players, i-Pods, digital voice recorders.
  • Data Preservation and Acquisition

Data preservation and acquisition are critical to the production process. This process can vary widely depending on the request and the location of the ESI. The first step is to notify the management and the IT representative of the preservation requirement. The IT personnel are the best people to implement a preservation hold. As an e-discovery vendor we can provide insight to the IT people as to what is important for the hold.

Once the preservation is executed then the data has to be acquired for production. Depending on the situation the IT personnel can produce the documents or you can use a third party vendor to perform the acquisition. If metadata is important then you may want to use a third party vendor to acquire the data using forensic techniques to protect the original form of the media.

EDD Processing

Once the documents are in the lab, everything is loaded into a single database for processing.Following are the options you have to use in e-discovery to reduce the amount of data to review in the production. The list is typically the order in which the e-discovery process proceeds. This can vary, however, depending on the request.

De-duplication –A critical element of de-duplication is to use proven and defensible processes to remove exact duplicates from the volume. It is impossible to predict the reduction of the data without some type or preprocess with the actual data. Note that the de-duplication of e-documents is different than the de-duplication of e-mails.

E-Document de-duplication – A forensically sound algorithm is applied to every document to create a unique ID number for that document. The system can then quickly identify duplicate documents and present the document with a slip sheet showing the location of the duplicates. The slip sheet is an option, however.

E-mail de-duplication – The de-duplication of e-mail is more complicated since it is frequently important to a case to understand if an e-mail sent to a custodian was actually received. The de-duplication of e-mails is limited to individual custodians and typically only removes duplicates from multiple backup sources for the individual.

Keyword searching – Once the de-duplication is completed, a keyword operation can be executed to pull evidence from the database. The keywords are defined by the requesting party so this process can be a very effective method to reduce the final volume to be reviewed.

Review Process
The final product is now prepared for the client’s final review. In a majority of cases, the production is exported into a load file for a case management software product such as Concordance, Ringtail or Summation. For larger litigations where the review process involves people in different location, an on-line review process can be arranged. The on-line review is a secure website with login procedures to allow each person to perform their review.

Each e-discovery production will vary considerably based on the request, the data, the number of data sources and litigation so please contact us to discuss the requirements for your case.