eDiscovery in the Headlines

A couple of recent environmental lawsuits have raised some interesting discovery issues.  Last month, after 17 years of legal battles, Chevron was ordered to pay more than $18 billion in damages to indigenous Ecuadoreans for polluting the Amazon.  Both Chevron and the plaintiffs are now appealing the trial, in which Chevron used discovery as a tool to its advantage- according to Law.com:

“U.S. court discovery has become one of Chevron Corporation’s favorite tools to try to undermine the gargantuan environmental damages suit filed against the oil company by tribespeople in Ecuador for alleged pollution of the Amazon jungle.”

Law.com called Chevron’s legal strategy an “unprecedented discovery campaign,” in which the defendant attempted to use a wide variety of discovery rules, including a failed effort to block discovery with the First Amendment, and several rulings under the obscure law 28 U.S.C. section 1782 that provides for U.S. discovery in aid of foreign proceedings.

In another recent case, Simerly v. Pulte, sanctions were ordered against Georgia-based developer Pulte Home Corp. for destroying emails and other electronic evidence related to an environmental lawsuit. With attorney fees and costs expected to total $400,000, this will be the largest spoliation case in Georgia history, reported Law Technology News.  The investigation into spoliation began when a Pulte executive admitted in a deposition that he had deleted emails related to the case and that he intended to continue to do so. According to the judge:

“Despite this court’s prior order prohibiting the continued deletion of emails, Pulte continued to engage in a pattern of … spoliation.”

These high-profile cases have brought eDiscovery issues to the forefront.  While allegations against Pulte claim willful deletion of evidence, it’s important for all organizations in litigation-prone industries to avoid accidental spoliation as well.  By adopting an intelligent eDiscovery solution, organizations can achieve the following benefits:

• Implement proactive eDiscovery, litigation-ready response capabilities
• Reduce the risk of government fines, court sanctions and negative verdicts
• Contain the cost of electronic discovery
• Make better, faster legal decisions based on real-time information and analytics

We’ll be watching to see how these cases unfold.

StoredIQ Launches eDiscovery Risk Assessment Service for SharePoint

Today StoredIQ announced the launch of our StoredIQ Risk Assessment Service for SharePoint.  Available directly from StoredIQ or through a StoredIQ Solution Provider Partner, this service addresses the growing eDiscovery challenge of  bourgeoning and increasingly complex SharePoint environments, providing organizations with a cost-effective information intelligence solution for mitigating legal risks.

On average, SharePoint deployments have grown at the astounding rate of 40 percent year over year.  These environments, which contain a myriad of different data types and are critical for managing core business processes, make the challenge of managing information within SharePoint an increasing concern.   More than 67 percent of the largest enterprises have now adopted SharePoint, which is being used as a dynamic social collaboration platform, including blogs, wikis, and “Facebook-like” user profiles.   Yet, traditional eDiscovery solutions have focused only on SharePoint document libraries and have failed to properly address the discovery complexities of the dynamic SharePoint environment.  These flawed eDiscovery practices have put organizations at risk for uncertain and costly litigation outcomes.

StoredIQ’s Risk Assessment Service addresses the challenging nature of eDiscovery within SharePoint by automating the process of searching and analyzing data.   StoredIQ provides a complete understanding of all data within SharePoint, including who the custodians are, and what data is responsive to a particular litigation matter.  StoredIQ’s solution also provides comprehensive analysis of SharePoint data in the wild.  By analyzing the data where it natively resides, StoredIQ eliminates the need to move data to another environment, thereby saving time and significantly reducing costs.

“As SharePoint deployments continue to grow, the risks associated with a lack of visibility into data will increase exponentially as well. StoredIQ’s eDiscovery solution provides unprecedented understanding of data within SharePoint, helping organizations to quickly gain control over their expanding SharePoint environment.”

– Christine Taylor, analyst with the Taneja Group

Many organizations are now building their business around SharePoint.  And although they are realizing significant productivity gains, they are increasing their risk and exposure to potential litigation in the process.  It’s critical that they take steps now to gain control over these environments quickly. StoredIQ’s Risk Assessment Service for SharePoint provides the deep data insight that organizations need to understand how to manage and minimize their SharePoint risk.

Ellis Ishaya, vice president of field operations for StoredIQ, will be discussing the benefits of our Risk Assessment Service as part of his presentation, “Synchronize Your Approach to Information Management”, taking place tomorrow at the AIIM Info360 Conference in Washington, DC.

Assessment services include setup, installation and configuration of the StoredIQ appliance; and a detailed risk assessment analysis and report.  Pre-packaged and custom risk assessment services are available immediately through StoredIQ or our Solution Provider Partners. For pricing and purchase information contact info@storediq.com.

Supporting Resources:
StoredIQ SharePoint Technical Brief
StoredIQ Tames eDiscovery Challenges within SharePoint
StoredIQ Extends Industry-Leading eDiscovery and Information Management Support for Microsoft SharePoint

StoredIQ Helps Companies ‘AIIM’ for Information Intelligence at Info360 Conference

StoredIQ will be a conference presenter as part of the eDiscovery track during next week’s AIIM Info360 conference. The AIIM Info360 conference focuses on helping companies find new ways to capture, store, analyze, access, and deliver enterprise information.  AIIM Info360, will be held March 21 – 24, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.

As part of the AIIM Info360 eDiscovery conference track, StoredIQ will be discussing the risks and costs of inefficient information management. Our goal is to help attendees understand the value of information intelligence across all their data sources, so information can be organized and managed according to specific policies and leveraged as an asset for eDiscovery, records management, governance and compliance.

WHERE: Walter E. Washington Convention Center —Washington, DC

WHEN: Wednesday, March 23 from 1:00 PM – 1:40 PM ET

TOPIC: Synchronize Your Approach to Information Management

DESCRIPTION: Organizations are forced to deal with vast and increasing amounts of unstructured information. IT departments have to operate on tighter budgets, and managing data is overwhelming. Organizations take a siloed approach to information management, dealing with eDiscovery, compliance and data storage separately; resulting in higher cost and increased business risk. Join StoredIQ vice president of field operations, Ellis Ishaya, as he discusses:

• How a synchronized approach to records and information management enables organizations to cut costs and gain more insight and control over their critical data needs, especially in today’s highly-regulated business world.
• How to properly find, classify and manage all information according to business value and risk.
• How to ensure a comprehensive, secure and efficient approach to meeting their governance and compliance needs.
• How to automate retention rules according to existing records retention schedules.

In addition to presenting, StoredIQ will exhibit our information intelligence solution at booth 1633 during the three-day event. Booth visitors can register to win a free data assessment service. Attendees that would like to schedule a meeting in advance should contact Jacqui Galow at info@storediq.com or +1 512-334-3156. For more information about AIIM Info360 or to register, visit www.aiimexpo.com.