Large Electronic Discovery Production

CASE STUDY

Litigation Support Case Study – Extensive Electronic Discovery Production

Tags
Digital Forensics, Litigation Support, eDiscovery, ESI
Large Electronic Discovery Production

Background

The General Counsel for a development company contacted Maryman to assist with the collection, review, and ultimate production of ESI (electronically stored information) related to ongoing litigation. Counsel advised that the ESI in the matter would be voluminous in nature and would be from many different sources (including computer systems and user data both from within the client’s company and from numerous 3rd parties). Support was needed to streamline not only the ESI collection, but also in searching and hosting the data for easy review by attorneys and executive management at the company.

Scope

The Maryman team was hired to forensically collect and preserve over 30 digital evidence items. The items included a wide range of data sources such as mobile phones, corporate email accounts, cloud stored data, laptops, desktops, tablets, as well as a number of 3rd party productions in varying load file formats. Some of the items were personally owned and others were corporate owned which added additional consideration for collection and review. Once collected and processed, the team was tasked with removing irrelevant files and filtering the data set to pare the results for further client searching.

Analysis

The Maryman team utilized industry standard collection tools and techniques to ultimately collect over 3.5 terabytes (TB) of data in a forensically sound format. Once collected, the team ingested the data into several forensic eDiscovery review platforms for validation, data de-duplication, removal of irrelevant files, and additional filtering. The filter and review process reduced the total number of files for client review by over 95%. Finally, the team exported the filtered result set into a cloud-hosted e-discovery platform for counsel review to determine privilege, responsiveness, and other categorization. The cloud-hosted review platform offered a highly cost-effective and convenient web portal for the attorneys and management personnel to securely review, tag, and produce pertinent files for production. Throughout the entire process, the Maryman team maintained close coordination with client and counsel to assist with validating their findings and creating production sets for opposing counsel.

Outcomes

The Maryman team used forensically defensible tools and techniques for the collection, searching, validation, and presentation of relevant ESI. This process proved essential for the client in navigating a complex set of litigation proceedings with a successful outcome. Maryman’s ability to efficiently pare the collection from its original size down to several hundred GB and provide training on ESI review best practices saved the client significant financial costs as well as countless hours of review time.
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