Electronic discovery is the process of locating and retrieving electronic data. These days, every company stores its important information in electronic format, on devices like CD ROM, DVD, hard drives, floppy disks and others. Data is also sent worldwide in electronic formats via email or the Internet due to speed and cost effectiveness. However, this may cause some of the data to be lost or corrupted. Electronic discovery enables the recovery of such electronic data from the vast amount of data available. Another important application of electronic discovery is in litigation or trials. Electronic discovery can even reveal electronic evidence that has been tampered with.
There are many companies today that offer electronic discovery services. The electronic document discovery market was worth $1.3 billion in 2004. Electronic discovery involves the use of certain software tools and technologies for data retrieval. These tools make data discovery not only extremely fast, but also efficient and inexpensive. These companies offer complete packages of all kinds of data discovery and management tools. These include email analysis tools, search and filter tools, proofing and redaction tools, tasking and case management features, and concept folders to easily tag and store documents. These make data collection, media restoration, data processing, document production, and report generation more efficient. Some specific eDiscovery services include evidence collection and processing services.
Most eDiscovery services are specially designed for lawyers and law firms, as they are the most common potential users of this technology. Some companies have data discovery capabilities of more than 5 million pages per day. Most of the services are custom designed based on the client’s requirements. Some of the leading eDiscovery service providers are: Biscayne Professional Associates, Bowne Litigation Solutions, Cricket Technologies, Emag Solutions, Daticon, Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc., Kroll Ontrack Inc., Renew Data Corp, Universal Document Solutions, ZANTAZ Inc, Applied Discovery Inc., Fios Inc., Ibis Consulting, KPMG, and SPI Litigation Direct.
