Too Native Review

Native file review and production in e-discovery is a bit like evolution.  Just when you think the evidence in support would persuade anyone, up pops someone who’s firmly and vocally unconvinced.

When I’m extolling the virtues of producing native file formats in a speech or webcast, I sometimes get pushback like this: “Hey Craig, you’re always telling people to ask for native files.  Well, I think native production is slower and more expensive because it takes so freakin’ long to load each file into Word, and messes up the metadata.”

I’m dumbfounded.  I want to answer, “Wait a sec.  You’re comparing the review of a bunch of document images using an evidence review platform like Concordance to opening each data file in its native application?  Are you kidding me?” Continue reading

Industry Substandard: Stripping Application Metadata

Shouldn’t we be aghast that firms still deal with tracked changes and comments in Word documents by simply wishing them away?  “It isn’t discoverable if it wasn’t in the final version” is a risky rationale.  “It might be privileged, so quietly remove it all,” is well, kinda nuts.

Here’s why: Consider that ESI can be broadly characterized as a record, a communication or a hybrid of both.  What we store for retrieval is a record, and what we transmit is a communication.  There’s much crossover, and sometimes we show instead of tell. Continue reading

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

I christen this blog with words from David Copperfield, my favorite book by my favorite author, Charles Dickens.  I want the heroes of this site to be its readers: the lawyers, judges, support personnel and others with the wisdom to know they must master electronic evidence and the temerity to try.

Blogging is an indulgence and a responsibility.  If I want you to visit, I’ve got to give you something worth your time.  Here, I’ll share things I’ve picked up about electronic discovery and computer forensics, striving to make those topics as interesting, exciting and engaging for you as they are for me.  If I occasionally eke out a well-turned phrase or make you smile, all the better.  Now and then, I may indulge in a personal post about something else, but I trust you’ll skip anything that doesn’t catch your fancy. Continue reading