Planet Data's Whitepapers and Industry Information
- EU Data Protection Laws presentation
March, 2006 Authors: Howard J. Reissner, Esq. and Lucy Inger - Electronic Discovery and the Controversial "Safe Harbor"
January, 2005 Author: Howard J. Reissner, Esq. - Electronic Discovery and Doing it In-House
January, 2005 Author: Howard J. Reissner, Esq. - Electronic Discovery Growing in Epic Proportions
January, 2005 Author: Howard J. Reissner, Esq. - Technology and Corporate Risk Management
July, 2004 Author: Ken Marchese - Learn New Tricks - Autocoding Technology is Here and Now
May, 2004 Author: Ken Marchese
Electronic Discovery Growing in Epic Proportions
The International Data Corporation predicts that in 2006, the total number of email messages sent daily is expected to exceed 60 billion worldwide, up from 31 billion in 2002. Slightly more than half of these messages will be person-to-person emails.1
This means that approximately 25 billion messages will be business-related emails. These emails may some day become part and parcel to litigation, regulatory, and compliance-related electronic discovery. This expansion of the demand for electronic data is a key factor in the continuing growth of the e-discovery industry.
Has e-discovery grown to such a substantial level where firms should bring processing in-house? Should they make the capital and personnel investment rather than outsource to vendors? The answer can be found within the firm, both quantitatively and qualitatively. First, let's look at the numbers.
Every organization has a threshold point at which it is economically feasible to make an investment in some e-processing capabilities. If a firm spends $400,000 - $500,000 in discovery support costs annually, it may, at first blush, appear to make sense to bring much of the work in-house.
First, the firm will have to make a serious financial commitment to assemble a team capable of performing sophisticated e-discovery processing.
Certain electronic discovery projects are well suited for in-house processing. Small loose electronic file collections and MS Outlook-based email and their attachments are fairly basic in regard to processing requirements. If firms purchase the correct software and have an IT department that understands electronic discovery well, there is no reason that these types of simple conversion projects cannot be performed in-house.
Some electronic discovery software applications designed to handle these types of projects include:
Concordance EX and Opticon, www.dataflight.com
Encase Forensic Edition & Enterprise Edition, www.guidancesoftware.com
Quick View Plus, www.stellant.com
Summation Blaze 2.5, www.summation.com
For firms that are seasoned at bringing other automated litigation support services in-house, such as scanning, coding, OCR, and hosting data; electronic discovery seems to be the next logical addition. Law firms need to look at the whole picture before taking the plunge. Such a decision can be filled with risk and should not be taken lightly.
Electronic Discovery Task Components
An electronic discovery project typically has these basic tasks:
- Scope figure out what data must be collected to respond to a request.
- Data Collection hire expert forensic consultants and technicians to gather the data and retain chain of custody.
- Data Review and Culling - review the initial data collection, determine what's responsive and cull out the non-responsive data.
- Data Processing convert all documents and data to a standard viewing format and populate the litigation support database for easy search and review.
- Production Review - mark as relevant; then, is it privileged or confidential?
- Production produce relevant, non-privileged or confidential data in response to the request.
There is an active role for attorneys, paralegals, in-house litigation support departments, vendors and consultants within each of these tasks. It is up to the internal personnel of a law firm to determine which of these elements should be handled by the client, by the firm, or outsourced. Confidentiality, accuracy and cost are all relevant considerations.
Issues with Bringing Electronic Discovery In-House
Some would argue that a law firm should stick to their own knitting and practice law rather than practice data processing. In many ways, they're right. There are many caveats to handling electronic discovery within the firm.
Chain of Custody There is a potential conflict of interest if the firm has to defend how they obtained digital data for a case. Expert testimony should not come from a representing law firm. There is an increased risk of malpractice, which leads to potentially losing cases and clients.
Forensics and Legacy Data No two electronic discovery projects are the same, and many require some form of computer forensics and legacy data conversion. Law firm IT staff and litigation support personnel are rarely equipped to handle these types of projects. Companies that have this type of expertise have collected years of knowledge and experience along with rooms of archaic computers for conversion purposes.
Software Upgrades The technology lifecycle ranges from 9-18 months. This means that the firm will need to upgrade its systems every time there is a lifecycle change to keep in pace with the norm. As the amount of electronic data compounds, processing capabilities must respond to the demand. This can become a burdensome expense to the firm.
Human Resources E-discovery ebbs and flows directly impact staffing levels at the firm. When discovery includes paper processing as well as electronic processing, scalability is essentially a human resource function. Litigation support vendors that provide both electronic and paper discovery services have found ways to smooth out the peaks and valleys in order to remain in business.
For example, Planet Data Solutions offers electronic document production and management solutions to the financial services industry. This allows for ensured retention of a highly experienced production staff. Companies like this are more able to cross-train and scale resources in order to respond to project fluctuation.
If a litigation support department finds that it needs to lay off production staff, scaling back up for large discovery will require recruiting and more training. Perhaps this is not the most effective way to manage the business of practicing law.
Leave IT to the Professionals Clients can reasonably expect that their law firm will seek competitive bids for quality services. Clients tend to respect a firm that sticks to its core competencies, their area of seasoned expertise. Albeit, lawyers are generally becoming more tech savvy, but overall, very few have the specialized knowledge required to manage complex electronic discovery projects.
An example of why attorneys should stick to their core is the Adelphia case, United States v. Rigas, 258 F. Supp. 2d 299 (S.D.N.Y., 2003). The US Attorney's Office itself collected evidence from hard drives and returned the hard drives to Adelphia. The defense found that two of the hard drives returned contained work product from a USAO paralegal. This work product would have provided the defense with a clear outline of the prosecution's tactics. Ultimately, the defense could not keep the government's files, but it was a close call for the USAO.
Electronic discovery and associated tasks of computer forensics and data production are tricky. If a firm doesn't know what they are doing, they can end up in a world of trouble in no time at all.
The Best Thing to Do
Electronic discovery service providers and consultants are no longer scarce. The electronic discovery market will continue to grow dramatically as more core methods of business communication become digital. As technology becomes ubiquitous, the tech-savvy attorneys need to become experts in a different way. There is much value to be had in the ability to know which questions to ask when it comes to an electronic production.
- How and where to find the electronic data?
- What issues (forensics, legacy data, dynamic data) are involved?
- What is the proper course of action to take?
- What are the risks and cost-benefits of acquiring data?
Attorneys and their staff should challenge themselves to be more educated on technical matters relating to computer systems, data, and electronic discovery issues. This will help them become more engaged in the electronic discovery process. This type of knowledge acquisition doesn't happen overnight, but by edging closer, they will be able to offer appropriate counsel.
The right combination of legal, litigation support professionals and IT staff could become pivotal to electronic discovery when examining, searching, organizing and reviewing electronic evidence that has been collected and converted by a qualified service provider. Collaboration of this nature makes the clock tick in their favor.
Outsource Solution When choosing an electronic discovery service provider, look for the following:
- Quality services. Management with a lot of experience in dealing with litigation and electronic discovery projects improves the chances of smooth sailing from proposal to delivery.
- Impeccable reputation and good references. Word of mouth is the primary sales tool for many vendors. What are colleagues saying about this vendor?
- Fair prices. Sometimes cheaper is not always better. Fair means that the quality and reliability meet the expectations for the amount paid.
- On- time delivery. Accept no excuses - the vendor should understand litigation and the definition of deadline.
- Agile and flexible. No two projects are entirely alike.
- Experienced. The ability to manage unforeseen demands and issues without negatively effecting outcome.
- Financial flexibility to do preferred pricing. The vendor should have strategic project planning and pricing options.
- Service orientation. The company's culture should be centered around perfection in client satisfaction and work product.
- Technically aggressive. Continuous innovation in processing data is a necessity in the present dynamic environment.
Conclusion
It is likely that every firm across America has had to deal with some form of electronic discovery; ranging from the simple printing of MS Outlook-based emails and attachments to full-fledged database analysis and production. Growth in the electronic data arena is not going to slow down, so it is best to educate, prepare, and be on the knowledge offense. Attorneys can do the right thing for their clients by collaborating with expert service providers and stick to what they do best, practicing law.
______________________________
1IDC - Email Usage to Exceed 60 Billion by 2006, According to IDC
About the author: Howard J. Reissner, Esq., is CEO of Planet Data Solutions, Inc., a provider of litigation support, information and data management services to law firms, corporations and government. He received his JD from George Washington University and is an active member of the New York Bar. He can be reached at hreissner@planetds.com.
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Complete, Integrated Electronic
Discovery Services
Planet Data is a One Stop resource for all your Electronic Discovery Projects, large or small.
Planet Data Electronic Discovery services are structured for the day-to-day, real world that you work in; practical, practiced solutions to complex issues. We assist you every step of the way with a broad array of totally integrated services that are easy to use, well managed, accurate, cost-effective and totally reliable.
Our highly trained and experienced project planners, managers and technical staff will work with you from the start to create a project structure that is logical and realistic.
Planet Data project managers will guide you through the often complex process of Electronic Discovery and make sure that your project runs smoothly, data is formatted the way it’s specified and your deliveries are on time. Planet Data integrated Electronic Discovery services are much more than the latest technology, it is technology...made easy.
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
One of the Most Experienced
Management Teams in the Industry
There’s no getting around it, Electronic Discovery projects are often complex. It takes seasoned professionals to make it easy for you. At all levels, Planet Data management has the experience to get your projects done right every time.
Click here to learn more about Planet Data's Management Team
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Flexible, State-of-the-Art Technology
Things move fast in the Electronic Discovery world. Planet Data maintains it’s techology at the cutting edge so you always have the best, fastest, most flexible and economical technology available.
Planet Data offers a completely integrated platform of data management services beginning with data storage policy consulting and including data retrieval and forensics, data processing (electronic and paper originated), review and repository hosting.
Planet Data is a state-of-the-art company that provides expertise, experience and new technologies in a full service format that generates reliable results and faster data turnaround. We are one of the most experienced companies in our industry in project design, set-up, management and cost control. Planet Data is a leader in the development of integrated proprietary work-flow solutions for processing large data collections.
Plant Data can host the processed data for review within our web accessed repository or deliver the data to a platform designated by the client.
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Expert Project Planning
Good project planning is the key to a successful project. Prior to the start of your project, Planet Data planners work with you to structure the most realistic, cost-effective way to meet your goals.
Our highly trained and experienced project planners, managers and technical staff will work with you from the start to create a project structure that is logical and realistic.
Planet Data project managers will guide you through the often complex process of Electronic Discovery and make sure that your project runs smoothly, data is formatted the way it’s specified and your deliveries are on time.
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Realistic, Reliable Scheduling
Planet Data creates a realistic, reliable plan for delivery of the information you need, when you need it.
Our highly trained and experienced project planners, managers and technical staff will work with you from the start to create a project structure that is logical and realistic.
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Experienced Project Management
Planet Data project managers are among the most experienced in the industry. Day by day they manage and coordinate your projects to make sure we keep our processing and delivery promises to you.
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Virtually Unlimited Processing Capacity
The Planet Data approach to fulfilling all your Electronic Processing needs is structured for any size project. Our processing capacity is virtually unlimited. We frequently handle very large and complex projects.
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Planet Data Advanced Technology
Electronic Discovery Processes
Provide Our Clients Better Access to
Critical Responsive Data Sooner.
- We have the ability to process vast quantities of data rapidly
- We maintain consistency throughout the results
- We provide expanded knowledge of document contents
- We offer lower costs per document
Real World Reasons to Use Planet Data eDiscovery Services
Auto-Data Extraction
Planet Data advanced technology Automated Data Extraction Service is a flexible process that combines powerful software with human experts to identify and extract common document attributes such as:
Entity Identification
Persons, organizations, locations, dates, amounts, keywords or other client specified information.
Role Identification
Author, recipient, document date, subject, cc & bcc.
The extracted data is also used to autocode email attachments and other electronic files.
Planet Data Solutions, Inc. 555 Taxter Rd Elmsford, NY 10523
1.800.688.2812
