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Firm Fuses Expert Legal & Technology Disciplines to Streamline One-Pass Solutions for New FRCP E-Discovery Amendments
Friday, August 10, 2007
Medina, OH -- With the recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) addressing Electronically Stored Information (December 1, 2006), the costs of traditional e-discovery services are expected to grow from $1.4 billion in 2006 to more than $4.8 billion by 2011. To address the burdensome cost and complexity of traditional "E-Evidence" in state and federal cases, leading electronic-evidence firm Vestige Ltd. (Medina, OH) has expanded its Non-Adversarial Discovery ProcessSM by adding a sophisticated yet simple One-PassSM Evidence Discovery Process (EDP); combining expert legal and technical disciplines in one preservation, discovery and document production methodology.
Vestige developed its Non-Adversarial Discovery ProcessSM long before the ground-breaking Zubulake decision (Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC) based on the principle that technology is transforming the way litigators and the courts worked. As law firms and enterprises adapt to the FRCP amendments, the challenge of cost-effective e-discovery is to successfully blend legal and technical IT expertise. The fact is today’s discovery professionals need expertise in the legal and technical ramifications of e-discovery to competently and professionally represent their clients in state and federal court.
Vestige’s One-PassSM EDP streamlines e-discovery by using a master-cloning process at the inception of anticipated litigation. One-PassSM uses high-powered, cost-efficient search and extraction tools to preserve sources of discoverable information and to drill down and expose only the relevant evidence which Vestige’s evidence professionals extract and provide to their attorney clients.
The One-PassSM methodology is a cost-effective, swift, non-invasive process that takes approximately six hours-to-two days during organizational downtime. It is faster then traditional e-discovery which "crawls" through business records; disrupting workplace productivity, taking weeks to browse through networks, desktops, etc. It is also more cost-efficient because One-PassSM retrieves the evidence whereas traditional e-discovery warehouses vast amounts of irrelevant data.
The One-PassSM Process creates a comprehensive master-clone of all relevant, electronic business media. One-Pass Clones include active and deleted documents embedded in business media and completely satisfy preservation obligations. Once created, One-PassSM master clones can be mined at any point of the litigation process by Vestige evidence professionals for analysis of evidence using Vestige’s custom and industry leading integrated litigation support software tools to gather, filter, review and produce electronic data. One-PassSM simplifies delivery of relevant information to attorneys and their clients, reduces the cost of review for privilege, and authenticates the information; rendering it useable in court.
FUTURE/CONCLUSION:
As the contours of the FRCP/ E-discovery landscape develop, the demands of the legal community will require technology to meet the attorneys’ needs for discovery. Multiple legal, constitutional, political, security, and personal privacy issues, many of which have yet to be raised, will have to be resolved.
According to Vestige President and CEO Damon Hacker, "Traditional e-discovery, coming from a history of copying large amounts of paper or data files, will need to address its very high cost factor and substantial disruption of client time. Vestige’s One-PassSM is the only e-discovery model specifically designed to bring the power of computing to the preservation and discovery process." Hacker also noted that, "Vestige’s One-PassSM is a different model as it captures all case data on a large scale upfront. This allows us to analyze all active text, images, calendar files, databases, spreadsheets, audio files, animation, Web sites, and computer programs and then go beyond the active files to also include relevant, deleted information."
With respect to the system’s scope Hacker added, "One-PassSM allows us to capture relevant case data on a larger scale. While this may seem complex and may intimidate some, Vestige leverages technology along with its legal and IT experience to create efficiencies at unearthing relevant, admissible evidence quickly. This allows us to take full control for our clients and expedite the discovery of just the relevant evidence."
This dedicated relevant-evidence focus has allowed Vestige to deliver e-discovery for clients using One-PassSM at an approximate average of 40% of traditional e-discovery fees. The overall cost-efficiencies can be directly attributed to the decrease in analysis and attorney review time as Hacker concludes, "Because we understand the relevant files process, we deliver only the evidence, which eliminates nearly all of the irrelevant, but responsive "baggage" that traditional search methods return to attorneys; thus our process dramatically reducing their review processing time."
CORPORATE PROFILE
Established in May of 2004, Vestige Ltd. is comprised of trial-tested legal and experienced e-forensics professionals that combine for over 60 years of expertise in the legal information/technology arena. Since its inception, the company has produced electronic evidence in more than 230 litigation cases for clients in the regional and national legal community. With professional evidence expertise in complex plaintiff and defendant cases Vestige’s extensive testimony experience encompasses; intellectual property, corporate espionage and accounting fraud, contract disputes, employment related issues, personal injury, product liability and much more.
Vestige President and CEO Damon Hacker holds the Certified Computer Examiner (CCE) certification and is active in key organizations such as the International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE). Additionally, founding partner and Chief Legal Officer Donald Wochna, Esq. is on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Computer Forensic Professionals (ICFP). Both Hacker and Wochna are oft sought after speakers on the topic.
Chief Technology Officer Greg Kelley holds the EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE) certification, sits on the advisory board for a number of University and Technical Institute’s forensic programs and is active in a number of industry professional associations. With key offices in Cleveland and Pittsburgh markets, Vestige personnel are also actively involved in Local, Regional and Specialty Bar Associations.
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