Determining where on the collection spectrum your company should fall can be a daunting prospect. Keep too much of your electronic data handy and you open yourself to more expensive collection and review processes, retain too little and you run the risk of spoliation sanctions when litigation rears its ugly head. But even if you’re able to define a solid retention policy and schedule, data loss related to litigation can still happen.
In an interview with Legaltech News, Bob Owen, partner at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, said, “There’s a simple explanation for why in the e-discovery context in 2015 data is not successfully preserved and it’s because of volume and complexity. … Back in 2003 the sources of electronic information were pretty simple you had email servers, network shares and databases. Now we have text messages, the Internet of Things, social media, Twitter, Facebook and smartphones, to name a few. There are so many places that data can reside that it can take a superhuman effort to ensure that you retain everything.”
