Electronic Discovery (eDiscovery): What Is It And How It Can Help You?

Electronic discovery or “e-discovery” refers to discovery of information stored in electronic format (often referred to as Electronically Stored Information, or ESI). The most common examples of the types of electronic stored information (ESI) include emails, instant messaging chats, text messages, documents, websites, accounting databases and scanned documents .

The discovery phase in a lawsuit is one of the most intrusive things a company or individual can go through.   The basic rules state that a party to the lawsuit may obtain any information that may even SLIGHTLY pertain to an issue in the lawsuit. 

The Need For Electronic Discovery (eDiscovery) As Litigation Support

Relevant information to case must be provided by parties of a lawsuit .  The traditional model of providing records and evidence has supported all physical materials, evidence, statements from victims etc. However, the use of computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices has been growing and becoming crucial in people’s lives.

EDiscovery is the system that uses electronic data as practical evidence for cases. We can all agree that the Internet is not anymore a place where people spend their spare time – but an endless stream of information from all spheres and topics. Furthermore, in some instances where tens of thousands of documents are potentially relevant to the case, it may be easier to scan the documents to a searchable electronic format.

The Legal Process Of eDiscovery

eDiscovery runs from the time a lawsuit is foreseeable to when the digital evidence is presented in court. This process includes four major phases:

  1. Identification- Electronic data is identified and placed on legal hold.
  2. Collection and Analysis-  Data is collected, searched, identified and stored.  Counsels or auditors ensures the evidence is relevant. This phase is often called “digital forensics”.
  3. Extraction and Presentation- Evidence is extracted and placed in a presentation format. The most common format for the evidence is the PDF or TIFF.
  4. Disposal- Records no longer needed are destroyed systematically.

The Future Of Electronic Evidence Through eDiscovery

Pulling information and records out of the digital space has never been easier. As much as we think that the virtual world is full of information making it hard for anyone to reach it, the truth is that information has never been easier to acquire. You just have to know the proper procedures and how to do it.Digital evidence is extremely well-suited for investigations. Digital evidence is easily searched and categorized.  Pulse Forensics specialized in the collection  search and production of data during the discovery process.

Our new Partnership

At Pulse we specialize in the collection and identification of evidence. We are happy to announce our new strategic Partnership with Litigistix (http://litgistix.com) expanding the services that we can offer your case from collection to the court room.


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