Hiring an eDiscovery Service Company: Everything You Need to Know

When your company is requesting litigation, all pieces of evidence needed for the investigation must be appropriately procured and processed. You must handle all paper documents and other types of evidence properly to be admissible in court. One of the most delicate pieces of evidence that you may need in litigation is evidence in digital or electronic format. It is therefore important for your company to hire a company offering eDiscovery services

What is eDiscovery?

Electronic discovery, also known as eDiscovery, is defined as discovering information in the digital or electronic format. Electronic information handling is significantly different from that of paper documents since they contain metadata, which is the information about the data. Metadata is important in maintaining the history of long-term data sets and understanding how these data sets were handled. Metadata is like the DNA of your files. The metadata carried by electronic information changes as the information is moved from one system to another or from server to server. The changes in metadata are important in determining the usefulness and the security of the information. 

How to Choose the Right eDiscovery Service Provider

Since metadata changes as electronic information are transferred from system to system, it is important to hire an eDiscovery service provider to preserve the metadata in its original form as possible. When it is impossible to preserve the metadata, the service provider must know how to prove the metadata’s authenticity in court. It is, therefore, important to carefully select the eDiscovery company that you would want to hire. Here are some tips to help you with that:

  • Assess the Service Provider’s Capabilities

There is a globally accepted procedural model for eDiscovery, which include identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis, production, and presentation. An eDiscovery company may excel in one component but may lack the capabilities in another. When choosing an eDiscovery service provider, make sure that they are competent enough with all these components, or you may hire different companies for each component of the eDiscovery process. 

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  • Assess the Company’s Credibility

It would be best if you also looked into the company’s experience and credibility. Will their IT staff be good or bad witnesses when it comes to depositions? Will their IT staff have enough time to address any eDiscovery issues that may come in? You must find answers to these questions before hiring them. It is important to choose a company that has extensive experience in defending their discovery processes, and also it is best to check the success rate of the company in terms of defending their work. 

  • Consider the Type of Service Needed

It is best to determine the type of service that your company will require for the litigation. Several companies offering eDiscovery services specialise in different aspects of the discovery process. For example, some companies specialise in consulting and professional services alone, while others only offer litigation support. It is important to know what type of service you need before you hire an eDiscovery company. 

  • Do Due Diligence

It is best to do due diligence on the company you are going to hire. Since obtaining and handling eDiscovery evidence is crucial in winning against litigation, it is best to invest your time in knowing the company you wish to hire. 

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