With eDiscovery Costing US Companies Over $3 Billion a Year, Global Digital Forensics is on the Front Lines to Help Reduce Costs

New York, NY, September 16, 2011 --(PR.com)-- According to the latest Socha-Gelman Electronic Discovery Survey, “the E-Discovery market alone has already surpassed $2.8 billion and is projected to reach about $3.5 billion in 2011.” Global Digital Forensics reduces eDiscovery costs by helping organizations avoid costly pitfalls and mistakes commonly made throughout the eDiscovery cycle.

One of the biggest contributors to spiraling eDiscovery costs is a common misconception prevalent when it comes to Electronically Stored Information (ESI) involved in litigation. Just because you collect data you may think is relevant to a case, it doesn’t mean you have viable digital evidence which can be successfully used in court, or even the right evidence. If electronic discovery (eDiscovery) was that easy, attorneys and organizations would not be spending the vast resources they do each year to make sure they are armed for litigation with highly useful and relevant ESI that will not only be pristine and admissible, but also stand up to the highest scrutiny of the courts and opposing counsels. They know anything less will often only prove to be an unnecessary and costly impediment to a case, rather than the catalyst to propel a case to a successful resolution that eDiscovery should be.

Internal IT and legal departments can be saviors for an organization on many fronts. But these very same saviors typically have little to no experience when it comes to performing a forensically sound acquisition of digital evidence which could be instrumental in winning a legal case.

Global Digital Forensics has been on the front lines helping organizations tame eDiscovery costs for years, from complex multi-million dollar class action law suits with terabytes of data to analyze, to intellectual property theft cases involving no more than a single laptop.

As the CEO/CTO of Global Digital Forensics, Joseph Caruso has seen first hand the costly consequences when eDiscovery is not handled by highly trained professionals that specialize in digital evidence. “Far too often we see situations that exponentially compound the cost of eDiscovery because inappropriate steps were taken from the onset of trying to acquire the desired ESI. It only takes one mistake during the entire cycle of eDiscovery, from acquisition to production, to render evidence useless, tainted and even inadmissible. An organization’s IT or legal department may have the best intentions in the world, thinking they are doing the home team a service, saving costs by acquiring evidence themselves. But those good intentions can end up costing many times more in the long run. They may know plenty about data, but evidence is a beast of a different color.”

Meticulously following evidentiary procedures is paramount every step of the way. Chain of custody must be precisely maintained, expected and acceptable methods must be used to seize and acquire the digital evidence, and every step must be able to stand up to the highest levels of scrutiny. And that’s just the procedural side of things, which of course the courts are very unyielding about.

Procedural issues are not the only looming pitfalls though, actually altering and tainting evidence can sink a case just as quickly. The simple act of turning a computer off and back on can change caches, temporary files, meta information like the dates and times files were created, modified, or accessed, and can also alter slack space and other areas on the drive that may have contained crucial evidence for the case. To add insult to injury, to even attempt to undo the damage to the evidence is going to be a long and arduous task for the computer forensic specialist you end up calling to try and save the day, costing much more to even make the attempt which may still prove ultimately impossible if too much information was altered.

“Almost everything we do today leaves a digital trail that often proves to be the lynchpin to a whole array evidence. Using proper eDiscovery techniques, we can build accurate timelines, player lists, and a wealth of other information which can decide a case. We can then produce detailed reports in acceptable formats, and assist attorneys in getting the most useful and relevant information culled from the mountains of raw data and even provide iron-clad expert witness testimony in court. So if I had a message for anyone even remotely suspecting they will be involved in any kind litigation dealing with digital evidence, it’s this - call now, we have emergency response teams standing by. You can pay a little now to get it done right, or a lot later to try to fix the mess. The outcome of your case may likely hang on the decision you make early.”, Caruso summed up by saying.

Global Digital Forensics’s team of evidence professionals can be reached toll free at (800) 868-8189 anytime to immediately assist you with your eDiscovery needs. For more information visit www.globaldigitalforensics.com