Changing Face of Litigation

The discovery of evidence has undergone a profound change. The ubiquitous use of computers for creating electronic information has changed discovery and admission of case information dramatically. People use technology in their business and personal endeavors on a daily basis - to transmit telephone calls, e-mail, instant and text messages, create word processing documents, and also to access the Internet, audio and video files.

In today’s legal world, most discovery consists of technologically-based information: it is estimated that more than 80 percent of communications never appear in printed form and more than 97 percent of information is created electronically.

A litigator must now seek information contained on hard drives, removable storage media, cell phones, and other electronic storage devices, and after receiving the information store, convert and search digital information about a particular person or issue in tens of thousands of e-mail messages and other digital evidence in a elective cost efficient method.

Electronic discovery can raise unique issues that do not occur in conventional paper-based discovery. The most common difficulties, which can lead to higher costs and loss of important electronically stored information (“ESI”), are the location and volume of the electronic information, preservation and management of data subject to discovery, scope of discovery, production format, burdensomeness, proportionality, privileged data, deleted information, backup tapes (including archives and legacy data), procedures for an on-site inspection and the need for expert assistance.

For most attorneys, their practice of law has not changed with computer technology and new procedural eDiscovery rules, which has led to unfortunate consequences. Today, failing to discover or produce electronic evidence can lead to severe consequences for practitioners. These may include court sanctions, losing an otherwise winnable case, ethics disciplinary action and malpractice claims.

eDiscovery Team Model

To prevent these consequences every organization - law firm, government agency, business or non-profit company, and service providers - should implement an eDiscovery team approach to discovering and managing "electronically stored information" (ESI). The eDiscovery team would consist of lawyers, paralegal's, IT staff, service providers and other legal professionals working together to discover and manage ESI. It is suggested that an organization provide mandatory (if possible) basic eDiscovery training to all employees, form an eDiscovery group or committee whose committee members would attend additional, more advanced current courses,  and serve as the in-house resource on e-discovery issues.

eDiscovery Instruction

The focus of our training will be to ensure a practical litigation oriented approach, and for it be creative in order to keep everyone’s attention. Special emphasis would be placed on both the technological and legal issues originating in eDiscovery cases. During the training we would utilize lecture, factual scenarios, work exercises, mock demonstrations, and quizzes to ensure learning of these vital concepts and for discussion to be free flowing and on point, building a team approach to eDiscovery.  This has been very successful in the past as evidenced from recent testimonials, and is the method used at the Georgetown eDiscovery Academy, where Michael Arkfeld is one of the primary instructors.

The training revolves around the different litigation “stages” - including pre and post compliant, meet and confer, and formal discovery rules - initial disclosures, interrogatories, request for production and depositions.

We are sure  you will be satisfied with the eDiscovery instruction originating from acclaimed eDiscovery publications, top instructors and the interactive  training. Past evaluations validate these sound teaching methodologies.

In addition, online, on-demand eDiscovery videos are available for those legal professionals wanting additional instruction and are designed for legal professionals who want to become "advanced experts” in this area for their law firms or other organizations and are held in conjunction with live teaching for maximum teaching effectiveness.