An Overview of Electronic Discovery by Matthew Knouff

1. An Overview of Electronic Discovery
by Matthew Knouff

2. • As more consumers and businesses rely on technology such as
email, the World Wide Web, and social networking services like
Facebook to conduct personal matters and professional
transactions, electronic discovery becomes a larger and more
important legal issue.
In short, electronic discovery concerns any process where
electronic data must be found, searched, and even appropriated for
use in a legal case.
Legal professionals such as lawyers and judges today rely heavily
on electronic information to decide verdicts.

3. • Due to the ease with which the data can be searched and organized,
it becomes vastly preferable to paper records, which can be
scattered, lost, or destroyed and are slow to search and enter into a
permanent record.
Indeed, even damage becomes a nonissue;
if electronic data is deleted or the hardware is damaged, specialized
software can undelete or recover data in most cases, whereas
burned or shredded documents are lost forever.

4. • Electronic discovery considers all types of electronic data as
evidence.
The definition of “data” ranges from text and images to videos,
sound clips, web browser history, and even malware such as
viruses.
As technology gives rise to different types of information,
electronic discovery continues to include that information and
evolve as a discipline.

5. •About the Author
Matthew Knouff serves as the General Counsel and eDiscovery
Counsel for Complete Discovery Service, one of the largest electronic
data discovery firms in the United States.