Legal professionals now face even greater challenges when trying to determine where to search for critical data and information that can be used to help build (or defend) a case. This has led to the continued importance and growth of companies and firms that provide technologies or services that make Electronic Discovery – or eDiscovery faster and easier for the legal community. Information that was once was contained to paper files has now exploded to digital devices as the use of mobile devices (i.e., iPhone, Blackberry), portable computers, and social networking sites (i.e., Facebook), and related items are used more frequently.
TERIS, a full service litigation support services provider, was invited to participate in a recent mock argument for the San Francisco Bay Area IP Inn of the Court to disclose the difficulties and expenses of complex IP litigation and vendor costs. The event featured five legal professionals as well as Judge Zimmerman who presided over what was considered an educational, if not contentious, argument fraught with the complexities of eDiscovery litigating for all parties involved.
Shawn Sieck, Regional Director of Electronic Sales, represented TERIS and spoke to the importance of involving outside service providers who have specific expertise in eDiscovery to keep the costs as low as possible. Sieck said attendees walked away from the event with a number of other key nuggets of information:
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The importance of early case assessment.
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Finding a vendor that is also a consultant (not just an order-taker)
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Taking the time to go thorough custodian interviews to determine all data sources
“It was a great honor and pleasure to be able to participate in this event,” said Sieck. “The San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property American Inn of the Court is much respected for its focus on intellectual property issues and for its work facilitating the exchange of ideas among legal professionals who work with intellectual property issues. We look forward to assisting the group in future exercises and continuing to be a resource whenever possible.”