The future of eDiscovery

Global reach increases complexity

​The complexity of these discovery challenges can grow when data moves around the globe. Special compliance and operational issues arise when data has to be moved physically on hard drives and other storage devices. The data may have to be collected from locations around the world, some in which the discovery environment is less than ideal. Privacy and protection laws in the location where collection will occur may prevent movement of the data. Transferring physical data between jurisdictions within a country can also raise issues. The physical operation of moving storage devices is also potentially troublesome for technical, custody, and security reasons. Hard drives have been tossed in overhead bins and rental car backseats and ended up damaged. Drives put in checked luggage are at the mercy of baggage handlers, and for the duration of the flight under a broken chain of custody.

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Emerging technologies expand the challenges

New technologies further increase the complexity of quantifying and collecting data for discovery. eDiscovery, which started with unstructured data in emails, now encompasses diverse devices, data sources, and technologies. Potentially disruptive future change agents in eDiscovery include:

Artificial intelligence (AI). AI-driven technology-assisted review is already helping identify relevant eDiscovery information. Could AI end up writing the emails rather than people?

Blockchain. Applying this distributed database technology to eDiscovery could be extremely complex. At the same time, blockchain's inherent characteristics could make it a key technology that enhances the discovery process.

Cloud services. Exactly where geographically is cloud data stored? A lack of proper controls and custody of eDiscovery data in the cloud could prove detrimental during a discovery process.

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