Clearwell Systems Announces Top Five Predictions for Electronic Discovery in 2011

Automating collection techniques, applying proportionality, and addressing social media and cloud computing challenges take precedence in 2011

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — November 15, 2010 — Clearwell Systems, Inc., a leader in intelligent e–discovery, today announced its top five predictions for e-discovery in 2011. Based on insights gathered from legal industry thought-leaders, ongoing cases, and emerging trends at enterprise and law firm customers, Clearwell anticipates significant priorities in the year ahead to be a greater focus on automating forensically sound data collection techniques and applying proportionality as additional ways to control e-discovery costs. With the proliferation of social media and cloud computing, an increased emphasis on discovery for data outside the firewall is also expected.

Clearwell’s Top Five Electronic Discovery Predictions for 2011 include:

1.Changes in Data Collection Best Practices: In 2011, manual, forensic “imaging” will continue to take a backseat to more automated, forensically sound data collection techniques. Forensic (bit for bit) images have long been the gold standard for the legally defensible collection of electronically stored information (ESI) in response to legal proceedings. However, while forensic imaging will continue to be important in a number of discrete situations (fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets cases, criminal matters, etc.), it will largely be seen as overkill in most electronic discovery cases. Since imaging is both time consuming and highly manual, savvy organizations will increasingly use automated, forensically sound collection tools to perform targeted collections.

2.Proportionality Becomes Reality: Burgeoning data volumes, as seen in multi-terabyte (versus gigabyte) cases, means that the legal community will continue to search for ways to prevent electronic discovery costs from exceeding legal exposure and attorneys’ fees. Groups like the Sedona Conference will continue to push for better clarification within the legal community surrounding “proportionality” in order to keep the electronic discovery “tail” from wagging the litigation “dog.”

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Source: clearwellsystems.com