Enterprise Targeted Search - Danger Will Robinson!

I just loved Lost in Space as a kid (it aired 1965 – 1968). The 1998 movie, not so much. There was that robot who always seemed to know when there was danger.  He would roll around waiving his mechanical arms in the air shouting “Danger Will Robinson, danger!” Will Robinson is the young boy. Dr. Smith, pictured with the hammer, the bad guy. This article is me running around waiving my arms in the air warning about the rapidly advancing “behind the firewall” technology around litigation hold, preservation, collection and beyond. Be very careful what you deploy and how you use this technology. Here’s why:

The software providers have finally, I think, figured out what many of us already knew – corporations by and large are not prepared to spend millions of dollars on ESI management software to solve their downstream discovery issues. Rather, why can’t we just leverage the technology we already have, many ask? Most companies have some sort of records management system – Enterprise Vault managing email, SharePoint and other applications are already indexing and managing content. The problem, however, is that those systems are not designed to cull, review, tag and produce. So, what we’ve been doing is pulling information out of those systems, re-indexing and re-organizing downstream in other tools better suited for those functions. Extraction, rendering and indexing content is the most expensive part of the ESI discovery process.

Clearwell Systems, Inc. today announced enhancements to the Clearwell Identification and Collection Module that will bring next generation targeted collection to e-discovery. This technology will leverage existing ESI management technology within the enterprise.

New features in the Clearwell Identification and Collection Module include:

• Keyword Filters: Provides the ability to filter collections by keywords. Administrators have the option to leverage existing source indices to utilize federated search-enabled keyword collections from data sources behind the firewall or in the cloud.

• Extended SharePoint Collections: Allows users to collect the full range of SharePoint document types including blogs, wikis, calendar items, announcements, discussions and surveys, and render them in context.

• Microsoft RMS Environment Support: Automatically interfaces with Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS) environments to securely decrypt and collect documents on the fly. 

http://www.clearwellsystems.com/ediscovery-news/pr_06_13_11.php

Lawyers have historically not been very good at developing and using key terms.  But, don’t take it from us: 

In William A. Gross Construction Associates Inc. v. American Manufacturers Mutual Ins. Co., No. 07 Civ. 10639 (S.D.N.Y. March 19, 2009), Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck complained:

"This Opinion should serve as a wake-up call to the Bar in this District about the need for careful thought, quality control, testing, and cooperation with opposing counsel in designing search terms or "keywords" to be used to produce emails or other electronically stored information ("ESI"). While this message has appeared in several cases from outside this Circuit, it appears that the message has not reached many members of our Bar.

Electronic discovery requires cooperation between opposing counsel and transparency in all aspects of preservation and production of ESI. Moreover, where counsel are using keyword searches for retrieval of ESI, they at a minimum must carefully craft the appropriate keywords, with input from the ESI's custodians as to the words and abbreviations they use, and the proposed methodology must be quality control tested to assure accuracy in retrieval and elimination of "false positives." It is time that the Bar -- even those lawyers who did not come of age in the computer era -- understand this."

So, now we can simply bounce terms against data inside the enterprise!  A scary thought, I must admit.  What happens when a targeted collection based on key terms is performed and then 6 months down the path new issues arise and new key terms are needed which is going to yield new files?  If preservation and collection was based only on the initial set of terms, data that was present during the first collection MAY NOT be present during the second run.  The market is screaming for a low cost way to manage litigation holds, conduct and manage preservation and collection and cull data inside the enterprise.  The fear I have is that this great technology will not be used properly.  Technology is dangerous without a sound process in how that technology is used and relied upon.  Saving money only to later spend more becuase you did not do it right the first time helps no one.  Danger Will Robinson!