eDiscovery
By means of eDiscovery (also known as e-discovery or e-discovery), relevant data (mostly e-mails and documents ) are identified, processed and made available or transferred to third parties in companies.
The term originally comes from the Anglo-American legal area and describes the part of a discovery that relates to electronic documents such as e-files , e-mails or chat logs. An eDiscovery process is intended to ensure the completeness of the data and at the same time minimize the risk of losing business secrets . The process is usually supported or partially automated by software.
In addition to this use, eDiscovery processes and software are used in the analysis of unstructured mass data in and outside of companies. For example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, together with the International Network of Investigative Journalists, used the eDisovery software Nuix to prepare the Panama Papers, and the eDisovery software ZyLAB was used by the United Nations International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia .
EDRM model
The EDRM (Electronic Discovery Reference Model) Community, founded in 2005 by George Socha and Tom Gelbmann, a group of legal and eDiscovery experts that was acquired by Duke Law School in 2016 and by Mary Mack and Kaylee Walstad in October 2019, have the key processes of the eDiscovery process in the EDRM model. The resulting concept was graphically represented as an EDRM diagram and has become the industry standard.
The EDRM diagram is made up of several modules that can be carried out individually or together. The individual modules do not have to be processed in a fixed order; rather, it may be necessary to repeat individual modules once you have gained a better understanding of the data or if the situation has changed.
Information governance
Information governance should ensure that eDiscovery costs can be controlled. For this purpose, the entire lifespan of the data is controlled from generation to final deletion. The EDRM proposes the Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM) as an independent framework for this.
Identification
As part of the identification, potential data sources or custodians who are in possession of potential, relevant information or documents should be identified and localized as completely as possible. Custodians refer to people who manage or control data, e.g. B. the owner of an e-mail mailbox. The amount of data can be filtered here, e.g. B. to a certain date range. It is not uncommon for additional potential data sources and / or custodians to be identified as part of an eDiscovery.
Preservation
In the context of conservation, data should be protected from accidental or intentional changes.
Collection
As part of the collection, the identified data and their metadata are to be collected in a court-proof manner.
Processing
When processing the collected data, these are normalized according to the respective requirements and metadata processed. The amount of data is reduced through deduplication and filter criteria.
Review
The reviewer should evaluate the individual files in terms of relevance to the facts (responsiveness) and confidentiality. For this purpose, search phrases (e.g. word combinations, regular expressions or patterns) and filters (e.g. by date, e-mail sender / recipient or metadata ) can be used to preselect potentially relevant files. In the case of large amounts of data, the potentially relevant data to be viewed is usually divided into so-called batches and the viewing is carried out in a division of labor. If the data contain confidential facts, irrelevant data, the components can be blackened out or suggested for blackening. In addition, machine learning methods can be used to support this. The EDRM community has also developed its own model for this technology-assisted review (TAR).
Analysis
While the analysis was initially only aimed at extracting facts from documents, the analysis is now used in all modules. Process analysis methods have been added to the content and metadata analysis.
Production
Upon completion, the relevant data is made available for further processing or forwarding. This can e.g. This can be done, for example, by converting to Portable Document Format or Tagged Image File Format ; irrelevant or person-related file components may have to be blacked out. The data exchange between different eDiscovery software solutions can for example be supported in the EDRM- XML data format.
Presentation
The presentation should present the results, the other components and / or the selected method in a way that is appropriate for the target group.
Situation in Germany
In Germany, eDiscovery support is mainly offered by international law firms, large and medium-sized auditing firms and technical IT service providers.
Web links
literature
- Ed .: Matthias Hartmann: International E-Discovery and Information Governance. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-503-13075-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paradise Paper - This is how the SZ research went. Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 18, 2018, accessed on March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ A Chance for Justice ?: War Crime Prosecutions in Bosnia's Serb Republic. Human Rights Watch, March 16, 2006, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ^ Mary Mack and Kaylee Walstad acquire the EDRM from Duke Law. EDRM Duke Law, October 18, 2019, accessed November 6, 2019 .
- ↑ About us. EDRM Duke Law, March 27, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ^ EDRM model. EDRM Duke Law, March 27, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ^ Information Governance Reference Model. EDRM Duke Law, March 27, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Data Custodian. EDRM Duke Law, March 27, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ^ Technology Assisted Review. EDRM Duke Law, March 27, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ EDRM XML. EDRM Duke Law, March 27, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .