Poll: Execs Believe E-Data Becoming Unmanageable

Results of a recent online poll of executives conducted by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services portray the growing volume of electronic data in corporations as a virtual litigation disaster waiting to happen.
"Discovery is a very serious issue to business today," Bruce Hartley, a director in the Analytic and Forensic Technology practice of Deloitte FAS, said. "There are real stakes and real penalties associated with poorly handled discovery. In the past few years, we have seen cases where defendants have faced jail time and millions of dollars in sanctions or penalties."
"Strategic steps should be taken so that electronic discovery can be handled correctly," he said.
Deloitte recommends that companies create an e-discovery program and communicate it to all departments. That would include records management policies and document retention schedules. The firm also recommends that companies map their data systems and data sources.

But the eDiscovery Costs!

As a records manager, I have no problem with keeping email with valuable content as long as it is useful, but way keep a decade plus of all that other "stuff" that has no value? When litigation comes (and it will come) someone will have to sort through all of it when and search tools are only of limited use. Besides, while storage itself may be "cheap" (debatable), the cost of supporting that storage is not. At 25+ terabytes and counting, I know that many of my legal department colleagues and I are looking forward to some serious deletion.

Complex Cases Often Depend on Electronic Evidence Organizers

Deborah Burk showed how effective litigation support technology can be in a dramatic “gotcha” moment during the 17th day of the Peregrine Systems fraud trial, a Tuesday morning in May.

VideoTrack owners Deborah Burk and Shayne Davidson stood in the mock courtroom where lawyers practice presentations. The control room has a one-way viewing window for observers. Under questioning by a prosecutor, Peregrine's former assistant controller, Denise Mastro, described how she helped others falsify the San Diego company's 2001 financial statement.