Electronic Discovery Industry Expected to Grow

Increased use of electronic discovery has caused an entire industry to appear. This has resulted in some job growth and not just in the legal professions.

E-discovery refers to the exchange of documents in electronic format during the discovery phase of a civil lawsuit. As the majority of corporate documents and records are now maintained in electronic format rather than strictly being on paper, the use of electronic discovery has grown in the last couple of years.

In theory, retrieving information from computer systems may seem simple enough. This may very well be the case with a small business that has relatively few records to go through before the relevant information is found and formatted so that it can be presented to the court. However, larger organizations face unique challenges related to e-discovery, which is why an entire industry that is centered around electronic discovery was born.

The first step of the process is the identification of documents which are relevant to the lawsuit. Usually, a company would be assisted by its legal counsel here to get information on exactly what kind of information should be presented. The next step would be the collection and preservation of the data.

This is one of the steps of the whole e-discovery process which employs the most manpower. Very often, entire computer systems must be searched through to locate any documents that may be needed for the lawsuit. Sometimes, the information may be difficult to find or may have been deleted. This is where experts in the IT industry come into play, such as computer forensics specialists. Firms that specialize in the electronic discovery process can assist a company in finding the documents they're looking for, as well as eliminating any duplicate or redundant pieces of data.

Corporations are now realizing the need to pay special attention to how their documents are stored as well as ensuring that they will be able to rapidly present them during the discovery phase of a trial. Most atto
eys are not experts in technology and have only a rudimentary knowledge of how data storage systems used by corporations work. This has opened a new area for lawyers who have a good knowledge in technology, as they are better able to counsel their clients as to how they should store their data, in what formats, how often it should be backed up, as well as how to put a legal hold on documents to ensure their integrity. Large corporations such as financial institutions, have created internal e-discovery teams to make the process more straightforward, while still retaining outside counsel to provide the needed legal advice.