The increasing reliance upon technology to enhance business activity has resulted in the exponential growth of business data being stored solely in electronic form. This shift in business information storage to electronic records has a significant effect upon the discovery process traditionally used in litigation. Electronic records are volatile and contain a vast amount of ‘meta data’ that may not be immediately apparent. To preserve the ‘state’ of the data, forensic methodology is employed in electronic discovery, thus adding a chain of custody and evidentiary control to the data. This evidentiary control will become relevant during court proceedings.
Modern litigation and investigation practices necessitate that electronic evidence collection takes into consideration the strategic data storage operations of an organisation. Prior to commencing any data collection a thorough understanding of an organisations electronic data environment is essential. An informed decisions can then be made about the data that is collected.
Consideration should be given to the collection and preservation of data from numerous sources. As a minimum the following sources of information should be considered as sources in all instances:
- Email systems
- Financial systems
- Local storage
- Network storage
- Backup solutions
- Connected devices such as printers and facsimiles
- Document management systems
Electronic discovery results in the collection of an enormous amount of data from a number of disparate sources. It will transpire that much of this data is irrelevance and/or may be protected by legal professional privilege. Therefore an efficient, progressive review environment that is built to individual specific requirements can greatly enhance the speed and efficiency of the discovery process. A well planned discovery process will provide a platform for you to review, categorisation and eventual produce data into your pool of relevant material
How PwC can help you
In conjunction with our international offices, we have developed internationally accepted tools and procedures for the identification, collection, preservation, review, analysis and production of data in electronic discovery matters. These procedures are scaleable being deployable on matters involving a single computer to those involving multiple business environments in several countries.
Having built and provided you with an electronic discovery platform, we have the necessary experience and staff to validate our methodology through affidavits and testimony in court room proceedings as required.
Our experience in assisting clients with electronic discovery has built resulted in PwC having the necessary depth of knowledge to provide electronic discovery quality reviews. In some instances we may not be involved in a matter initially, however are engaged at some point during the electronic discovery process. In these matters we can overlay our electronic discovery methodology and procedures on the matter. This process can add a level of assurance to the electronic discovery already undertaken and aid in the identification of any short comings prior to reaching the court room.
