ILTA 2011: Big data, discovery and collaboration demand our legal attention

http://ow.ly/6DsBB

An article by Sean Martin published by Computerworld.

This article discusses the recent ILTA conference and the importance of the eDiscovery topic at that conference.

As the article states, "eDiscovery was one of the hot topics at the recent International Legal Technology Association 2011 (ILTA 2011) Conference in Nashville, Tenn., which drew more than 2,500 attendees. Nearly 25% of the 185 vendors exhibiting at the show claimed to provide discovery products and/or services, and many more had offerings that could play a role.

Why did eDiscovery make such a big impact, and why now? The answer may lie in the fact that as law firms and in-house counsel engage in the identification, collection and processing of electronic evidence, they are experiencing significant challenges in the centralization, management and preservation of the information."

The author points out, "eDiscovery is hard to get right, and, to make matters worse, the sheer volume of dataand the number of data sources continues to grow exponentially. In a recent IDC report sponsored by EMC, the research firm forecasted that, by the end of this year, the volume of data created annually is expected to exceed 1.8 zettabytes, having grown by a factor of nine over the previous five years. That number is anticipated to increase to 35 zettabytes created annually by 2020."

The article references some of the discussions held at ILTA, and some of the suggested best practices for dealing with electronically stored information.

The article concludes with the following statement, "Legal business is all about the evidence and related case matter. Organizations that delay in their development of a good plan surrounding the identification, collection, organization, processing, analysis, production and preservation of information from all relevant sources could find themselves faced with spoliation claims, court sanctions and legal judgments, potentially resulting in huge penalties and even brand destruction.

Fortunately, there are a number of technologies and services available to aid in the eDiscovery process, giving organizations options to help avoid such cases."