Finally, the Ability to Reuse Collected Data

Guidance Software The legal department has undergone dramatic change since the beginning of the 21st century. No longer do in-house counsel litigate first and ask questions about the bill later. The litigation lifecycle is viewed as a business process, one that in-house counsel are expected to oversee. And a significant portion of this oversight is devoted to reigning in costs and increasing efficiencies in order to maximize the return on legal spend. This new responsibility has given way to certain innovations in the litigation process.

One such new innovation has the potential to drastically alter the legal landscape. Too often companies that find themselves involved in related lawsuits must reinvent the wheel when litigating each case. When one claim arises, in-house counsel must identify, preserve and collect potentially responsive electronically stored information (ESI). Then when similar claims arise, they must conduct this process all over again. Conducting this e-discovery cycle just once can be time-consuming and costly enough. But doing it repeatedly gives way to a myriad of inefficiencies. Instead, there is a new method known as collected data reuse.

Collected data reuse capitalizes on the work product generated from previous data collections that arise from similar claims that involve identical custodians. By preserving the work product of a previous e-discovery cycle and reusing it in another case, an organization can save thousands in collection costs. Additionally, legal and IT personnel can save themselves days in time-consuming labor, thus freeing them up to work on other aspects of the case. Additionally, the risk of spoliation and threat of sanctions goes way down, because you can confidently assert that you have searched all of the potentially relevant data in your possession, custody, or control.

Recognizing this need, Guidance Software has rolled out a new feature within its EnCase® eDiscovery solution that enables collected data reuse. Now, e-discovery practitioners can automate searches of previously collected evidence each time a new matter arises with the new Collected Data Re-Use feature.

For example, imagine your organization is involved in a patent infringement case regarding a product that you produce. Your legal department will go through the typical motions to identify relevant custodians and data stores and to preserve, collect and process potentially responsive ESI. Now, imagine that a few months later a separate patent infringement claim arises with a different company regarding the same product. The odds are you will be identifying and collecting much of the same information from many of the same custodians and data stores as you did in the initial patent infringement case. Rather than repeating the entire e-discovery process, you can simply collect information from new custodians and data stores as well as newly created information from old custodians and data stores. Therefore, a significant portion of your production can come from the previous matter, thus saving your organization a tremendous amount in time and money.

With its ability to maximize efficiencies while reducing expenses and risk, Collected Data Re-Use is positioned to become the next e-discovery "must have." And no solution but EnCase® offers this powerful functionality.

Watch the Only with EnCase® video to learn more about Collected Data Re-Use and other features available only with EnCase® technology.



Russ Gould is director of product marketing at Guidance Software.