Needle in the haystack, or the haystack? The data is there but how to approach it? Electronic discovery and forensics are two different tools available to litigants and their attorneys. The clues and putting the story together requires different approaches. This affects the consideration on whom to hire and when to keep the work in house. It is more easily translated to dealing with thousands of computers or the nuances of specific hard drives and other data. One or the other may be needed, but they are different. They require different skills and focus on separate goals, which are valuable to understand and make use of.
The needle in the haystack is computer forensics. It is focused on looking for that buried clue. Mindy Morton, partner at Bergeson, explains, “Our firm specializes in complex business disputes. Most of our cases involve electronic discovery, but occasionally we need to rely on computer forensics, especially in trade secret cases. Computer forensics allows us to find deleted documents and discover what happened and when. It can make or break the case.”
