A lesson

Rosalyn Harris  July 17 2008 11:11:40 PM

A quick lesson on e-discovery

Electronic discovery (also called e-discovery or ediscovery) refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case. What kind of electronic data? All of it; meaning text, images, calendar files, databases, spreadsheets, audio files, web sites, animation, computer programs and e-mail. In recent years, e-mail has become an important source of evidence in civil and criminal litigation, not only in Canada and the US but around the world.

In his article E-mail can be used as evidence Scott Orr explains that “In the legal world, the "e" in e-mail stands for evidence,” and many people often forget this when writing emails. People are quick to fire off an e-mail with comments that should never been committed to writing, and then are unprepared to face the consequences of their actions. We would all do well to remember that when writing an e-mail, don’t say anything you’re not prepared to defend and don’t say anything you wouldn’t want on the record.  

For more information on e-discovery, you might want to attend Best Practices for e-Discovery, an IBM sponsored webinar.

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