E-DISCOVERY AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
The prevalence of electronic documents means e-discovery can be the largest single line item in a company’s litigation budget. For companies in dispute, e-discovery may consume more than half the allotted funds and even exceed the amount at issue in the dispute.
Moreover, opposing parties frequently find themselves in dispute over e-discovery practices. Such conflicts may involve issues such as leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient discovery, implementing holds on ephemeral data like text messages, and standardising electronically stored information (ESI) protocols. These contentious issues often elicit divergent perspectives.
For dispute resolution practitioners, e-disclosure and ESI production offer both opportunities and challenges.
Mountains of data
E-discovery – the process of identifying, collecting and producing ESI during legal proceedings – has moved well beyond just trawling through an organisation’s emails. Organisations store a great variety of ESI and digital data, including emails, documents, databases, voicemails, social media content, and more.
The digital landscape has evolved rapidly in recent years, with the volume of diverse digital data beginning to surpass email. As a result, e-discovery plays a vital role in building a case to resolve a dispute.
“With ever expanding data volumes, practitioners can use e-discovery analysis techniques, advanced search capabilities and automated workflows to economically locate relevant information quicky among the morass of irrelevant documents otherwise generated,” explains Meghan A. Podolny, counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP. “These advanced tools minimise errors more likely inherent in a pure human process, and increased accuracy streamlines the process and builds a stronger case.”
Jan-Mar 2025 issue
Richard Summerfield