The role of computer-based material is now vital to the modern litigation process. With the explosion in the use of electronic documents, spreadsheets and e-mail, the volume of information held on computers is growing rapidly. Litigators are finding there is a considerable amount of relevant material obtained from electronic data and that it needs to be reviewed alongside any hard copy material. It is becoming more usual to find evidence exclusively in electronic format. Statistics suggest that 90% of all business documents are created electronically and 35% never reach the printed page.
The recent Hutton Inquiry is a good example of how forensic technology was used as part of a wider investigation. It exposed information that would not be revealed from looking at printed files. Forensic technology showed that deleted material can be recovered from electronic devices as well as from traditional files. This visible demonstration of the advantages of computer forensics has raised the profile of how specialist computer techniques can assist litigation. For example, forensic techniques can recover multiple versions of the same document from the traces left on electronic media. The seemingly small differences between the altered versions can be used to build up a picture of what changes were made and when. The timeline of document creation and differing versions can be used to corroborate or disprove the chronology of events.
