In February 2008, a U.S. Magistrate Judge issued a decision that may add to the already expensive process of electronic data discovery in litigation. Now expert testimony may be required to determine the adequacy of keyword search terms used to identify and produce electronically stored information, or "ESI."

 

Corporate information technology staff and in-house lawyers are often forced to undertake the unenviable task of locating, organizing, searching, and producing all ESI relevant to a dispute. Locating and individually reviewing every e-mail sent or received by a potential witness can be exorbitantly expensive, and sometimes impossible to accomplish in the time permitted. The standard answer to this problem has been to conduct electronic keyword searches against the subject line and body text of the e-mails and other ESI.

 

The keywords used for such searches are selected in varying ways. Sometimes lawyers for a party requesting information will specify keyword searches. Other times, the producing party will attempt to determine the keywords itself. Often, search terms are negotiated or disputed.

To read the full article, click here.

| IT Channel Planet 

The little-known market of electronic discovery (eDiscovery), which involves compiling, storing and securing digital information, is emerging as a key opportunity for channel players.

Growth in the market is being fueled by the need for corporations to comply with recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) covering the discovery of digital information.

Those amendments, which took effect in December 2006, compel companies to do precise and exhaustive recordkeeping. Under the new rules, for example, a judge or jury can assume a company is hiding information if it can't provide emails deemed relevant to a lawsuit in which it is involved.

That development has turned many companies to seek help from VARs and other channel partners knowledgeable about this developing vertical market...

To read the full article, click here.

ONSITE³ recently announced a reseller for its eView review platform. To find out more, click here.

To learn more about ONSITE³'s compliance with the EDRM XML standard, click here.

ONSITE³ recently promoted Christopher Jurkiewicz to the position of Vice President of eDiscovery Technology. Previously, Mr. Jurkiewicz held the position of Director of Electronic Discovery. Jurkiewicz is now responsible for the architectural design and development of the company's Electronic Evidence Enterprise (E3) eDiscovery platform, including deployment of updates, training, creation of throughput metrics, and standardization of processes and client delivery methodologies. Jurkiewicz is also heavily involved in eDiscovery project planning and implementation.

As an 8+ year veteran of the litigation support service industry, Mr. Jurkiewicz has been progressively promoted from his beginnings in ONSITE³'s data delivery department where he helped standardize procedures and created workflow processes, such as for achieving greater efficiencies when merging scanned documents with coded and electronically produced data. Later Jurkiewicz was central to the creation of ONSITE³'s Electronic Data Discovery (EDD) service and spearheaded client requests and enhancements to the company's eDiscovery processing service. Jurkiewicz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from Marymount University.

In addition, ONSITE³ promoted Cristal Kurtz to the position of Vice President of Human Resources. Previously, Ms. Kurtz held the position of Senior Director of Human Resources. Kurtz is now responsible for leading the company's collaborative efforts for national employee relations, staffing and recruitment, compensation and benefits, and payroll. Leading up to her promotion, Kurtz successfully drove development of updated benefits offerings, highly competitive recruitment efforts, an increased sense of team culture across all company locations, and an outstanding employee retention rate.

Prior to ONSITE³, Ms. Kurtz has strong experience in corporate employee relations for a major national non-profit organization and in developing the human resources infrastructure in the pre-IPO, high-growth, hi-tech dotcom and aerospace industries of the West Coast region. Her prior accomplishments include domestic and international human resources management, corporate compensation and benefits program development, succession and retention planning, developing international and multi-site recruiting infrastructure, and building reward programs to encourage client centric behaviors. Kurtz holds an undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin and a Masters Degree from Southwest Texas State University as well as a certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources Management (SPHRM).

For further information regarding the management team at ONSITE³, click here.

ONSITE³ eDiscovery Expert Teaching eDiscovery Course for Insurance Agencies

As a prelude to the upcoming 32nd annual AMS Users' Group National Conference in Reno, Nevada (being held April 13-16), the AMSUG published a short interview with Jeffery Fehrman (President of EELabs, a division of ONSITE³) in the group's Nov/Dec 2007 issue of User-to-User magazine. The interview is primarily intended to promote a two-part eDiscovery educational course that Mr. Fehrman will be conducting during the event on behalf on Iron Mountain, who is sponsoring the course. Attendees will be members of the AMSUG, which represents more than 11,000 independent insurance agencies that use AMS Services agency management systems. The national conference tends to attract close to 2,600 participants. Details about the national conference are available from the AMSUG web site at www.amsug.org.

"In our two-part class, we're going to talk about what eDiscovery is, technical and legal considerations, and how to proactively prepare. This is not a time an agency wants to be reactive," Fehrman said. "Then, we'll give agents a checklist of what they need to do, and some alternatives for archiving their electronic files, which is where Iron Mountain comes in."

To read the full interview in User-to-User magazine, click here.

For additional details on the two-part course, click here.

ONSITE³ is now providing a FREE tool for converting to or from the EDRM's new XML load file format and existing Concordance Opticon and other delimited text load file formats. What this means is that if the EDRM's XML format should be required for production of electronic evidence in one of your cases, you could use this tool with your existing applications in order to accomplish the task.

Available as freeware, there is no cost or other obligation required in order to use the tool, nor is there any associated trial period. ONSITE³ is simply providing the tool for free via download to anyone who submits an online registration form from our website. Future enhancements to the tool are also planned, including support for conversion from additional load file formats.

Limited technical support is available for this free tool via phone or email. Specific support contact details are provided after submitting the registration form.

Installation is simple, the tool is very easy to use, and it is compliant with the EDRM's XML standard 1.0. To get your free copy, click here.

Additional technical details about the EDRM's XML standard 1.0 are available from the EDRM website.

If you are estimating the size your next e-discovery project, you may want to get a free, no obligation estimate using ONSITE³'s eDiscovery Estimator. The eDiscovery Estimator operates regardless of your e-discovery vendor and is designed to ensure that no data is removed from your computer or network during the estimation process. Additionally, you can use the eDiscovery Estimator as often as you like - at no cost.

 

To sign up to try the tool, click here.