Last month, we talked about search terms, key words, and the Gross Construction case.  If you missed it, I highly recommend that you click the link and check it out.

Search terms are a natural outgrowth of the nature of electronic information.  The idea of harnessing the searchability of electronic information to cull relevant documents from irrelevant ones is an intuitive one.  If we’re interested in documents relating to widgets, it is natural to assume that relevant documents will contain the word “widget.”  Thus, we can take a large data set — a collection of a million e-mails and electronic files, for example — and search it for the word “widget.”  If only a hundred thousand documents contain the word “widget,” we’ve narrowed the scope of our task by 90 percent. (more…)

Back in the olden days, document review was simple.  The other side would ask you to produce all documents related to the claims in the case, a team of young lawyers would go to a warehouse full of paper that looked like the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and those young lawyers would start looking through the paper – page by page – to find the responsive documents.

But who uses paper anymore?

These days, document review doesn’t even involve documents – it involves electronically stored information, or ESI.  And the warehouse full of dusty boxes has been replaced with a server farm. (more…)

Litigation, like death and taxes, is inevitable.  It’s a fact.  Sooner or later, every company is going to be involved in a lawsuit of some sort.  Maybe a client will fail to pay what it owes you and you’ll have to sue to collect.  Maybe a competitor will believe that you are infringing on its technology and file a patent-infringement suit.  Maybe it will be something as simple as a subpoena – not alleging any wrongdoing involving your company, but simply seeking information relevant to a dispute between two other companies.  Nobody knows what it will be, but rest assured: sooner or later there will be a lawsuit of some sort involving your company.

“Oh, no!” I hear you saying.  “I’m going to get sued and there’s nothing I can do about it!”

Well, yes and no.  Yes, you’re going to get sued, but there is something you can do about it.  You can prepare, so that when the inevitable lawsuit arrives, your house is in order and you are ready to go. (more…)

Last month, we had a quick crash course on discovery in civil litigation. If you missed it, don’t just take my word for it – click through to the link and get caught up! We’ll wait for you to get back.

Done reading?  Great!  Now you know all about the way document discovery worked back in the days before everyone had a computer.  “But wait, Jason!” you might say.  “We don’t live back in the days before everyone had a computer!”  And you would be right.  For example, if you’re reading this column, odds are you’ve got a computer. (more…)

Electronic discovery. Admit it: the very words send a shiver of excitement down your spine.

Or, more likely, I’ve just used two words that make sense individually but mean nothing to you when put together like that.

Even worse, the phrase “electronic discovery” may have made you scream in terror and hide under your desk.

These first few columns are for those of you who have no idea what electronic discovery is. We’re going to get you up to speed on electronic discovery so that you, too, can hide under your desk. Then we’ll explain to everyone that electronic discovery is not anything to be afraid of.
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