A forward-thinking plaintiffs' lawyer posed this courageous question: "Yesterday, a new client in a sexual harassment case brought in seven different electronic platforms. We routinely image our clients' hard drives for preservation, and it can be a substantial expense to our clients to send this work out. I realize that it is technically quite different than simply making a photocopy, but, at the end of the day, it is copying. My question is: Why do I have to outsource imaging to a vendor?"
I replied: "If the person doing the work does it capably, documents a reasonable chain of custody, and verifies the image by hashing, I see no reason why you would need to outsource forensic imaging for preservation. When all goes well, it's a simple task. In those rare instances where it doesn't, you bring in an expert. Forensic analysis is a wholly different situation; but single drive imaging is (and should be) a ministerial task when performed by a reasonably competent person in a sensible way."
The chief objection to drive-imaging by law firms is the specter that firms risk conflict and disqualification by becoming witnesses in their cases. For the most part, that trope exemplifies the cocktail of fear and ignorance regularly served up to protect vendors' turf and sustain the high price of electronic data discovery (EDD).
Forensically imaging a drive isn't comparable to a lawyer's role in drafting instruments or advising clients. There is less discretion or judgment exercised in the routine imaging of electronic media for preservation than in photocopying paper documents (where you might have to decide whether to copy both sides of a page or how to account for foldering or unitization).
How many times have you run across absent or mangled pages in a photocopy job? It happens all the time, yet we don't outsource all photocopying because we might have to testify about it. Lawyers make photocopies without fear because everyone understands the process. With modern drive-imaging tools, you'll push fewer buttons forensically imaging a drive than setting up a photocopy job. Plus, electronic authentication by hashing assures you've copied everything faithfully.
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Source: law.com
By: Craig Ball
I replied: "If the person doing the work does it capably, documents a reasonable chain of custody, and verifies the image by hashing, I see no reason why you would need to outsource forensic imaging for preservation. When all goes well, it's a simple task. In those rare instances where it doesn't, you bring in an expert. Forensic analysis is a wholly different situation; but single drive imaging is (and should be) a ministerial task when performed by a reasonably competent person in a sensible way."
The chief objection to drive-imaging by law firms is the specter that firms risk conflict and disqualification by becoming witnesses in their cases. For the most part, that trope exemplifies the cocktail of fear and ignorance regularly served up to protect vendors' turf and sustain the high price of electronic data discovery (EDD).
Forensically imaging a drive isn't comparable to a lawyer's role in drafting instruments or advising clients. There is less discretion or judgment exercised in the routine imaging of electronic media for preservation than in photocopying paper documents (where you might have to decide whether to copy both sides of a page or how to account for foldering or unitization).
How many times have you run across absent or mangled pages in a photocopy job? It happens all the time, yet we don't outsource all photocopying because we might have to testify about it. Lawyers make photocopies without fear because everyone understands the process. With modern drive-imaging tools, you'll push fewer buttons forensically imaging a drive than setting up a photocopy job. Plus, electronic authentication by hashing assures you've copied everything faithfully.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Craig Ball
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