MailSafi Glossary of Terms

E-discovery

eDiscovery (also known as e-discovery, electronic discovery, e discovery) is the process of identifying, collecting, reviewing and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a request for production by a court of law, regulator or legal counsel for purposes of investigation.

Unlike hard copy evidence, electronic communication (documents or email) are more dynamic and often contain metadata such as time-date stamps, author and recipient information and file properties. Preserving the original content and metadata for ESI is necessary to prove there was no tampering with the evidence.

After emails or data are identified by the parties on both sides of a matter, potentially relevant communication is placed under a legal hold. Once placed on hold, they cannot be modified, deleted, erased or otherwise destroyed. Potentially relevant emails and data are collected and then extracted, indexed and placed in a database. It is then analyzed to segregate the non-relevant data from the relevant data. Relevant data is then hosted in a secure environment for reviewers (paralegals or court attorneys) to access and code for relevance as necessary.

The ultimate goal of eDiscovery is to produce a core volume of electronic evidence for litigation.