E-Discovery

• Gizem Taştemel Dinçkan, CFE
• Manager
• E-mail to Gizem

Electronic discovery (eDiscovery) is the process of identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a request for a lawsuit or internal investigation. ESI includes, but is not limited to, emails, databases, voicemail, audio and video files, social media, and web sites.

E-discovery has a dynamic structure. The data of companies can change and increase in minutes. Maintaining the original content of the data and keeping the examined data unchanged is especially critical in legal proceedings and internal investigations.

E-Discovery Process

The process of going through ESI and selecting the appropriate documents as digital evidence is discovery. This process consists of the following phases:

Identification

Before parties preserve anything, they have to determine the relevant data. E-Discovery teams use a variety of methods to identify sources of potentially relevant ESI, including reviewing case facts, interviewing key players, and assessing the data environment.

Preservation

After relevant ESI is identified, it needs to be protected from being destructed or altered. The most common method to preserve ESI is through a legal hold process. A legal hold is a formal communication sent from the legal team to relevant data owners (known as "custodians") instructing them not to delete certain ESI.

Collection

ESI is collected and centralized properly to ensure that legal process is not harmed. Therefore, it must ensure that the contents and metadata (key attributes of the data such as date created and file size) are not altered as a result of the collection process.

Processing and analysis

The processing phase involves preparing collected ESI for analysis and review. Cerebra uses Intella, e-discovery and digital investigation software, to perform the processing phase. The processing includes extracting files from folders, deleting meaningless system data, and converting certain file formats in preparation for review. After the processing phase the ESI is reviewed through our e-discovery and digital investigation software, Intella. This tool saves time and money, making internal review much more practical. During the analysis phase, at the highest level, ESI is evaluated for content and context, including key patterns, topics, people, and discussion.

Production and presentation

Relevant ESI must be produced for use as potential evidence in the legal proceeding or internal investigation. E-Discovery rules address how documents must be produced. The presentation phase involves how electronic evidence is displayed as evidence at hearings, depositions, and trials.

How Cerebra can help

• Fast review of big data in different formats
  • All data formats
  • Size of the all different data formats
  • Date range of data
  • People found in e-mail data
  • Frequently used internet addresses / internet logs
  • People frequently contacted by e-mail
  • Words often used by the user
  • USBs and wi-fi names previously connected to the device
  • Previously logged on to the device accounts
• Data analysis
  • Analysis and understanding of evidence with high-tech e-discovery tools
  • Use of advanced technology techniques such as optical character recognition, paragraph analysis
  • Quickly and effectively identification of relationships or links of findings via visual analysis
  • Delete analysis, identification of when and by whom the deletion process is performed by using various techniques and if it is possible performing the recovering data process.
• Analysis of ESI considering the suspected misconduct
  • A comprehensive keyword search after understanding the suspicious acts and individuals
  • Removal of all documents which are irrelevant with acts and individuals
• Preparation of technical reports for the use of findings as a legal evidence
• Data recovery