Email eDiscovery – How to Conquer Your Most Litigation-Risky Archive
Email is said to be the biggest money pit during eDiscovery if you don’t have systems in place to properly mine the archive. It is a ubiquitous communications tool for official and casual dialog, but it also happens to be a de facto filing system for many end-users. As a result, email has become the most litigation risky archive.
Click here to listen to the 10-minute podcast on “Email: Your Most Litigation Risky Archive” and discover 3 best practices for email eDiscovery.
email archives include text, metadata and attachments
Industry research suggests more than 30% of corporate email messages include an attachment, and close to 85% of the collective email data is from attachments. The attachments may be anything from contracts, to schematics, to service level agreements and various other documents which could be relevant to litigation.
The attachments to emails may be unique to the email archive and not otherwise captured as part of other eDiscovery collections. Therefore, it is critical your eDiscovery tool can process attachments as well as the message text and metadata.
e-Discovery Tools reveal relevant dialog in email archives
Email archives contain records of commentary on mundane topics internal to the enterprise, but they also document the knowledge and sentiments exchanged about potentially controversial topics. Often times, these dialogs lack an appropriate level of discretion and thereby contribute to a rich source of evidence during litigation.
There is no shortage of recent litigation in which shocking language and common phrases used in email messages have proved to be relevant to the case. For example, seemingly innocuous terms in email archives like “concern”, “let’s discuss”, or “too late” can actually be beacons for evidence gathering. But how do you locate those beacons in a massive email archive with messages, email metadata, and attachments?
Email eDiscovery Software helps you find evidence buried in any email
Follow these important considerations when choosing an eDiscovery tool to help mine and manage email archives.
Archiving Protocol. Does the enterprise enforce end-user archiving from the email application’s interface? Is there a server-level email archiving protocol in place? Do employees use personal accounts for official company business?
System Compatibility. A single case may involve collecting email evidence from different email applications, such as Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes, and Novell GroupWise. Be sure your eDiscovery software can support the email applications you need.
Email Complexity. A basic email message includes body text and metadata, but it is also common for email messages to include foreign language text, to be nested within each other (attach a message to another message), to contain attachments, or even a combination of all three. Look for eDiscovery tools which unpack and search those complex messages.
Advanced Search. In terms of email eDiscovery, the capabilities of legal search are the same as with other data types. Choose an eDiscovery vendor supporting myriad search tools for recall and precision on messages and attachments, as well as one offering text mining and analytics.
Click here to listen to the 10-minute podcast on “Email: Your Most Litigation Risky Archive” and discover 3 best practices for email eDiscovery.
email ediscovery leads to enterprise information archiving
The common factor among companies who are the most “litigation ready” is they have an Enterprise Information Archiving (EIA) strategy in place for information, including email and all other sources. Email is often used as an end-user filing system, so it is important to consider things like end-user archiving and server-level email archiving protocols.
Click here to listen to KMWorld roundtable webcast about the challenge e-mail archives pose to information governance initiatives and eDiscovery responses.