CDS Senior Consultant Nicole Guyer discusses some of the issues facing forensic accountants, such as data in different formats and locations, at the recent CalCPA FSS Forensic Services Section Joint Sections Meeting.

Long before starting formal discovery, an internal investigation should be launched so a party and their counsel can understand and assess the information ecosystem, identify sources of potentially relevant information and examine these sources via sampling. Although a litigant may not be required to produce the information found, it is crucial that pre-litigation investigation be handled appropriately to ensure it is accurate.

While businesses have been showing increasing interest in moving to the cloud over the past few years, many companies have hesitated because of concerns about accessibility, control, security and cost. Today, however, we are seeing a sea change in corporations growing comfort level with cloud technologies.

Social Media and eDiscovery shared the limelight at this past month’s Women in eDiscovery Chapter meeting. The conversation explored the future of data privacy in the U.S. and the effect on social media preservation, as well as the interplay between U.S. and international laws.

Relativity provides many helpful features that improve the eDiscovery review process, including Early Case Assessment and Data Analytics.

It is common for external factors such as new legal or business changes to affect an existing contract. A company using only a few standard contracts may not require much time to go through its contracts manually to address such issues. However, for companies with hundreds or thousands of contracts, substantial effort may be needed just to identify which contracts are impacted.

Mobile data is one of the most rapidly proliferating data sources in the eDiscovery realm and is gaining more significance daily. It presents unique challenges, such as securing authorization to access devices, rapidly evolving encryption features, wildly varying content formatting, device upgrades, and other issues.

As eDiscovery technology becomes more sophisticated, both small and large companies can feel overwhelmed with the choices and the potential cost. Small companies or law firms usually have little knowledge about which technology will help them review or produce documents most effectively within their budget constraints.