Beyond the Four Corners: Evolving Electronic Documents
Summary
Identification and preservation are the first and most fundamental phases of an electronic discovery effort. Almost every other type of discovery process failure can be fixed with adequate time and money, but once unique, relevant electronically-stored information (ESI) is gone, it’s gone. Unfortunately, the challenges of identifying, preserving, and collecting relevant ESI continue to grow as old sources evolve, new sources emerge, and the behaviors of organizations and individuals adapt. The story of the past decade has been one of the long, slow march into the cloud, as organizations have transitioned to new software-as-a-service solutions and individuals have transitioned to new messaging and collaboration tools. As they have done so, the definition and boundaries of “document” have been changed too, by modern attachments, dynamic content, endless threads, and more. This paper reviews these new technical challenges, the legal ambiguities they create, and the ways practitioners are approaching them.
In this Whitepaper
- How organizations’ and custodians’ behavior has changed
- What new ESI challenges are being created as a result
- What source-specific issues practitioners need to know
Key Insights
- Relevant ESI may be stored in more places than ever
- Whether linked attachments must be captured is uncertain
- Many issues can be mitigated when negotiating a discovery agreement
Summary
Identification and preservation are the first and most fundamental phases of an electronic discovery effort. Almost every other type of discovery process failure can be fixed with adequate time and money, but once unique, relevant electronically-stored information (ESI) is gone, it’s gone. Unfortunately, the challenges of identifying, preserving, and collecting relevant ESI continue to grow as old sources evolve, new sources emerge, and the behaviors of organizations and individuals adapt. The story of the past decade has been one of the long, slow march into the cloud, as organizations have transitioned to new software-as-a-service solutions and individuals have transitioned to new messaging and collaboration tools. As they have done so, the definition and boundaries of “document” have been changed too, by modern attachments, dynamic content, endless threads, and more. This paper reviews these new technical challenges, the legal ambiguities they create, and the ways practitioners are approaching them.
In this Whitepaper
- How organizations’ and custodians’ behavior has changed
- What new ESI challenges are being created as a result
- What source-specific issues practitioners need to know
Key Insights
- Relevant ESI may be stored in more places than ever
- Whether linked attachments must be captured is uncertain
- Many issues can be mitigated when negotiating a discovery agreement