Electronic Discovery

Electronic discovery (also called 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.

The recent changes to the rules of the Superior Courts (Discovery) 2009 ("2009 Rules”) now obliges Irish organisations to make available both paper and Electronically Stored Information (ESI) during the process of discovery.

Espion have considerable experience in this area and have recently completed a multi-jurisdictional electronic discovery exercise involving over 120 individuals and several terabytes of collected data

Espion provides law firms a one-stop electronic discovery resource for establishing repeatable processes to efficiently manage discovery requests involving Electronically Stored Information (ESI) that may arise.

Methodology and Approach

The primary methodology that Espion apply to any electronic discovery project is based on the Electronic Discovery reference Model (EDRM) as documented at http://www.edrm.net.

Launched in May 2005, the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Project was created provide a set of comprehensive and peer reviewed standards and guidelines to be used as the basis of any electronic discovery project. The completed model was placed in the public domain in May 2006 and provides a common, flexible and extensible framework for conducting electronic discovery. The team responsible for designing, writing and producing the EDRM consists of 62 organisations, representing a range of international electronic discovery service providers, software providers, corporations, law firms and professional organisations. The model is highly regarded as an international authoritative source of leading practice guidance and expertise.

The following diagram outlines the main phases of the EDRM model