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Ediscovery is involved with the research and finding of data that has been stored on different electronic devices. Most companies that are in this industry work independently from a law firm and are employed on a contract basis only. The reason is because it is a specialist field and a law firm will often not be able to manage this type of department. Although in some cases if the law firm is extremely large then they may have an ediscovery department in-house, which is a tremendous competitive advantage.
The whole idea behind ediscovery is to capture the way that modern man communicates and stores information so that it can be used in legal cases. The reason why this is become popular is because in modern times there are many people who wish to conceal evidence through these types of devices and communications. Also with an ever increasing thirst for technology it means that our daily lives now revolve around some sort of electronic gadget. When we use these gadgets they actually leave a digital footprint of where we have been, who we have spoken to, and what the conversation was about.
With this footprint ingrained in the digital world so to speak, evidence can be extracted and compiled to prove a set of conversations that took place, the whereabouts of a particular person at a certain time, and they can even trace and find out when a file was modified and who did it.
With ediscovery providing this level of information it is no wonder that companies providing this service are becoming extremely in high demand. A lot of recent high-profile legal cases involve an ediscovery firm in the background. Particular cases that come to mind are the recent financial investigations that have taken place with the $100 million Ponzi scheme fraudster Kauitilya Pruth. His case involves a lot of e-mails and documents that are stored on hard drives and the case continues until sentencing. It is not just criminal cases that is need a company that can handle ediscovery, but there is also a great need in many civil cases where to individuals or organisations have a disagreement.
These types of companies can handle up to five million pages of documents per day and also carry out in-depth discovery is on servers that are hosted abroad as well.
As long as the proper court subpoenas or permission have been granted discovery can take place and information can be extracted, regardless of the device. Devices that are becoming extremely popular today are PC tablets as more people are starting to use them for work and communication.
Legal companies have started to stand up and take note of what is happening to the industry with electronic communication and data storage. Today there are more companies offering this type of service than ever before and it is predicted by industry experts to grow further within the next 5 to 10 years.
Under Aged Killers Get Life
The Supreme Court just ruled on two juvenile murder cases that are likely to set major precedents for young convicted murderers going forward. In a decision opposed by the conservative side of the court, the Supreme Court voted to allow both boys, now men serving time, the possibility of parole for their crimes. There are a few justices, and states, who are not happy about it.
Plaintiffs Pay the Tab in Netflix Case
Costs associated with the electronic discoveryprocess have increased as companies rely more on electronic storage for documents and records. The protocol in lawsuits was that defendants had to cover the cost of e-discovery on their own—until now. Netflix recently was awarded a large restitution for e-discovery, a landmark decision.
How E-Discovery Works In The Cloud
If you're using cloud based services, you need to be aware of some of the legal considerations. Here is how the discovery process could be affected if you use cloud based storage.
