A single gigabyte of data is roughly the equivalent of 214 000 pages of type information​

Modern civil and administrative court actions now routinely deal with hundreds of gigabytes of electronically-stored information. This often leads to us regularly searching for digital needles in very large data haystacks

Electronic discovery (sometimes known as e-discovery, ediscovery, eDiscovery, or e-Discovery) is the electronic aspect of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a request for production in a law suit or investigation. ESI includes, but is not limited to, emails, documents, presentations, databases, voicemail, audio and video files, social media, and web sites.

The discovery process is a standard process in civil legal actions, and our experience with the law allows us to assist legal practitioners in the discovery process where digital information is part of the discovery process. Electronic discovery is a legally complex process as modelled in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, which is used by DFIRLABS in our electronic discovery processes.

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The E-Discovery process

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1. Information Governance

Information management is a crucial aspect on electronic discovery, where the various stakeholders within an organisation need to be brought together to ensure an efficient and effective discovery process. We will facilitate these processes - bringing together business users, IT departments, and legal, risk, and regulatory departments to assist in developing an information governance framework.

This framework will allow all stakeholders to understand the business imperatives of the organisation, knowledge of the tools and infrastructure for managing information, and sensitivity to the legal and regulatory obligations that the organisation must comply with.

2. Identification

​In the identification phase, we will work with the relevant legal teams to develop and execute a comprehensive plan to identify and validate potentially relevant, electronically-stored information within the organisation concerned. This includes not only systems within the organisation, but people as well.

3. Preservation & Collection

​When a duty to preserve electronically-stored information is triggered, we will assist in isolating and protecting potentially relevant data in a legally acceptable and efficient manner, so as to mitigate any risks. If it is required to collect the electronically stored information, we will collect it in a manner that is legally acceptable.

4. Processing, Review & Analysis

​Once the electronically-stored data has been collected, it is processed in order to:

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• Remove duplicates
• Normalise various data formats
• Preserve metadata
• Catalogue items

We will then assist the respective legal teams to review the data, and analyse it to determine the specific data that they require for their litigation.

5. Production

​Once the electronically-stored information has been processed, reviewed and analysed, the resulting data must be produced in a usable format to the relevant legal parties. This must take place within the agreed specifications and timelines. We will assist in this process.

6. Presentation

​The end point of the electronic discovery process is using the evidence in litigation and displaying it before legal audiences. We will assist in this process in preparing the material for use in these settings as well as supplying supporting testimony or reporting to assist in the understanding of the material.