Take the E-discovery Pop Quiz

Think you're ready for electronic data discovery? See how you fare on the questions below, some of the least challenging used to assess the skills of new arrivals at the 2012 Georgetown University Law School E-discovery Training Academy.

1. The duty to preserve electronically stored information is not triggered until:

a. A claim or suit is reasonably anticipated.
b. Receipt of a preservation notice from an opponent.
c. 21 days after service of a complaint.
d. Service of the first discovery request.

2. Using hash values from the National Software Reference Library to cull irrelevant data is called:

a. De-Hashing.
b. De-NSRLing.
c. De-NISTing.
d. Normalization.

3. Printed out, a gigabyte of data will usually generate:

a. 5 million typewritten pages.
b. 500,000 typewritten pages.
c. 24 Bankers' Boxes.
d. 18,000 TIFF images.
e. A variable volume dependent upon the form of the data.


4. Indexed search differs from linear search in that:

a. Indexed search traverses the source data each time a query is run.
b. Indexed search does not require that a database of content be created.
c. Only indexed search supports Unicode character sets.
d. Indexed search is much faster than linear search for subsequent searches.
e. Most EDD service providers rely primarily on linear search.

5. A "network share" is a:

a. Remote storage allocation employed by a user to facilitate backup.
b. Device with an IP address used by multiple custodians.
c. Collaboration tool sometimes called a "deal room."
d. Feature that distinguishes Network-Attached Storage from a Storage Area Network.

6. Which of the following is an example of embedded metadata stored in a file?

a. Date last modified.
b. Date last printed.
c. Date last accessed.
d. File size.
e. File address on disk.

7. De-duplicating within a single custodian's mailboxes and documents is called:

a. Vertical de-duplication.
b. Horizontal de-duplication.
c. Near de-duplication.
d. Global de-duplication.

8. In e-discovery, it's important to understand the provisions of Federal Rule of Evidence Rule 502 because it:

a. Addresses ways to protect against and remedy inadvertent production of privileged information, including electronically stored information.
b. Sets out the Safe Harbor protection against sanctions when data loss occurs despite the routine, good faith operation of electronic information systems.
c. Establishes the duty to offer a quick peek production option for ESI.
d. Governs the role and qualifications of experts, including Daubert challenges.

9. Your client diligently employs a grandfather-father-son backup tape rotation model for its Exchange server with six-month rotation of monthly full backups and four-week rotation of weekly full backups. The monthly backup is made on the last day of each month. The Exchange server is configured for a 90-day purge (i.e., auto-deletion) and the Dumpster for 60-day retention (i.e., of double-deleted messages). This configuration has been in place for three years. On July 1, 2012, what is the earliest date after which you can be reasonably confident that all e-mail still exists on backup tape?

a. 1-Jul-09.
b. 1-Jul-11.
c. 1-Nov-11.
e. 1-Jan-12.
f. 1-Apr-12.


10. An English language keyword search is not likely to be effective if it:

a. Fails to incorporate common misspellings.
b. Fails to account for pertinent abbreviations and acronyms.
c. Includes stop words.
d. Runs against a collection of encrypted files.
e. Fails to support both ASCII and Unicode text.
f. All of the above.


Answer key: 1:a; 2:c; 3:e; 4:d; 5:a; 6:b; 7:a; 8:a; 9:c; 10:f

Questions provided by Law Technology and News