Developing a strategy for Disclosure

ESIELECTRONIC STORED INFORMATION

John Lapraik

Outline of Topics

Introduction

CPR, law and expectations

IT issues

Disclosure process

Disclosure – what is it?

A requirement to provide copies of all non-privileged

relevant documents that relate to an issue in dispute

Disclosure Process

Introduction – Why eDisclosure?

Increasing Data Volumes1. Documents generally created electronically

2. Evidence – best original source

3. Cost

Introduction – Why eDisclosure?

Data volumes

• 90% of the data in the world created in the last two yearshttp://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/

• 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minutehttp://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

“Cost of creation” is now effectively nil and volumes are increasing accordingly…

Introduction – Why eDisclosure?

Cost – getting to grips with material:

30 lever arch files of paper

Introduction – Why eDisclosure?

Cost – getting to grips with material:

30 lever arch files of paper

– Full review – say, £10,000?

Introduction – Why eDisclosure?

Cost – getting to grips with material:

30 lever arch files of paper

– Full review – say, £10,000?

– Make searchable – say £4,000?

Introduction – Why eDisclosure?

Cost – getting to grips with material:

30 lever arch files of paper

– Full review – say, £10,000?

– Make searchable – say £4,000?

– Search, filter, sort and manage “native” electronic files - £200

Introduction – Why eDisclosure?

Cost – getting to grips with material:

30 lever arch files of paper

– Full review – say, £10,000?

– Make searchable – say £4,000?

– Search, filter, sort and manage “native” electronic files - £200

– 6 miles(!) of lever arch file…

Outline of Topics

Introduction

Civil Procedure Rules

IT issues

Disclosure process

CPR Survival Guide

To the first Case Management Conference (“CMC”)…

1. At the outset

2. CMC – 28 days

3. CMC – 21 days

4. CMC – 14 days

5. CMC – 7 days

6. CMC

At the outset 1/6

Getting a “feel” for what is there

• Preserve and seek sources of material

• Witness of Fact Questions…

• IT Team Questions

• Factual and Legal analysis – what are the live

issues?

CMC - 28 days 2/6

Refining your understanding

• Review Questionnaires

• Talk to IT Team – number of documents?*

• Understanding the live issues in dispute

• “Proportionality”

• What about the other Parties?

* 1GB = circa 7,000 documents = 60 lever arch files

CMC - 21 days 3/6

Drafting

• Prepare N263 Report - outlining issues, volumes,

options and cost range (N.B. Statement of Truth!)

• Complete EDQ (not compulsory, but a good

insurance policy)

CMC - 14 days 4/6

Going public

• File and serve Report (plus EDQ?)

• Arrange to meet other Parties - see E2.5 (c) of the Commercial Courts Guide for an Agenda

http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/courts/admiralitycomm/admiralty-

commercial-courts-

guide.pdf

CMC - 7 days 5/6

File and serve a Budget

• Precedent H Costs Budget if required

• Otherwise, at least, a Disclosure Costs Budget

CMC 6/6

Be ready to discuss:

• Issues in dispute

• Proportionality

• Scope

• Tools and techniques

• Costs

Disclosure “Menu” CPR 31.5(7)

Bearing in mind the issue of “Proportionality”:

• None…

• Specified documents

• Issue by issue

• Standard – relates to a “live” issue

• Full

• Anything else?

• Paper…

• Keys to the warehouse…

Pitfalls

Issues if there is a failure to engage

• Early investigation…

• Co-operation – discuss with other Parties…

• “DIY” investigations…

Outline of Topics

Introduction Civil Procedure Rules IT issues

Metadata and file collection File types Keywords

Disclosure process

IT Issues Metadata – “data about data”

With Metadata – precious and fragile - you can:

1. De-duplicate – MD5# values..

2. Filter

3. Group

4. Sort

5. Search

and generally gain control

www.millnet-consulting.com/forensics/collecting-data

Outline of Topics

Introduction Civil Procedure Rules IT issues

Metadata and file collection File types Keywords

Disclosure process

File Types IT Issues 2/3

• Pieces of paper - hard copy

• PDF and tiff files - (scanned) images

• “Native” files – such as .doc, .xls, .msg, .html

- with scope to de-dupe, filter, sort share, search (and even print!)

Outline of Topics

Introduction Civil Procedure Rules IT issues

Metadata and file collection File types Keywords

Disclosure process

Keyword Searches IT Issues 3/3

“DIY” searches

• Windows Explorer

• Images, encrypted, password protected, inaccessible files

• MS Outlook

• Attachments

“Professional” searches

• Pre-processing to extract “machine readable” text

• Report on files not accessible

• Defensible audit trail..www.millnet-consulting.com/forensics/searching-data

Outline of Topics

Introduction Civil Procedure Rules IT issues Disclosure process

1. Seeking information

2. Preservation

3. Collection

4. Processing and Review

5. Production

Disclosure Process

• Existence and relevance

• “Legal hold”?

• Questionnaires

• Relevance to the issues in dispute

• Proportionality…

• Locations

Identification

Firewall

Backup / Archive

Document Server

Email server

Intranet server

PC PC PC Laptop

CD DVD

USB stick…USB drive

SMSPhone

Facebook Twitter

Home PC Webmail Voicemail

Identification - locations

Issues to consider:

• “Legal hold”?

• Identify what may be relevant

• Decide how to preserve the data..

Preservation

Options to collect evidence:

• (Robo)Copy individual files

• (Robo)Copy directories

• Backup tapes...

• Forensic collection

• Imaging

• Covert collections..www.millnet-consulting.com/forensics/collecting-data

Collection

• Early Case Assessment – culling and filtering

• Approaches to Review

• Grouping

• Sorting

• Sampling

• Review tools

Processing and Review

Review software - “Field Tree” view

Review software - “Document” view

Keyword search

Keyword search sucks. It does not work, that is, unless you consider a method

that misses 80% of relevant evidence to be a successful method.

Keyword search alone only catches 20% of relevant evidence in a large,

complex dataset, such as an email collection. Yes, it works on Google, it works

on Lexis and Westlaw, but it sucks in the legal world of evidence gathering.” 

Ralph Losey

Conceptual Search - Predictive coding

Searching

Production and Presentation

With electronic data:• Capture• De-duplication• Filtering• Sorting• Searching• Indexing• Paginating

AND Production and Presentation is

EASY!

ESIELECTRONIC STORED INFORMATION

www.millnet-consulting.com/nls