Do you know what 'e-discovery' is? A website connected to an educational television programme is a good guess but, sadly, is far from correct.
According to research firm Gartner, electronic discovery is 'the collection, preparation, review and distribution of electronically stored information associated with administrative, regulatory, litigation and other government proceedings'. And it often isn't pretty: according to a survey by the research firm Jurinnov, 88 per cent of British executives said they would rather go through a root canal procedure than an e-discovery one.
In recent years, e-discovery has become the standard component of civil and corporate litigation, fostered by a growing awareness among legal authorities that most compelling evidence today is in digital form.
On the whole, Asia is not as litigious as North America and Europe, but the world is changing fast. The legal exchange of digital information could be more daunting in this region.
Without the right approach and technology in place, e-discovery can be an expensive and time-consuming experience for a company, compelling corporate chieftains to spend time with two groups of people they'd prefer to see as infrequently as possible: lawyers and information technology (IT) administrators.
In the US court system, the onus of e-discovery took on new weight on December 1, 2006, when amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect. The amendments introduced the phrase 'electronically stored information', which, for the purposes of the discovery process, covers all current types of computer- based information.