E-discovery – the production of electronic documents for legal cases – is becoming an increasingly important area for lawyers and corporations. In particular, the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) introduced in the USA in December 2006 have meant that companies are being asked to produce huge quantities of documents in legal cases.

Not meeting the required e-discovery standards can be costly. Morgan Stanley lost a $1.45 billion case in 2005, principally because it could not produce the right electronic documents in time.

In many cases the key factor in winning or losing is electronic documents that are retrieved from a computer’s hard drive. The evidence can be particularly compelling as the documents are clearly time-stamped, and show who edited them, saved them, and emailed them.

With so many electronic documents being examined in litigation, hidden “metadata” has become an increasing worry. Metadata can include tracked changes in Microsoft Word and other documents, and information on who worked on a document when. If it accidentally reveals significant information, this metadata can have a huge cost to a business and potentially can be the deciding factor in winning or losing a case.

Lawyers need to understand the risks of metadata in e-discovery, how to control and manage metadata, and how to advise their clients on this issue. This white paper explains the key issues, examines the new FRCP changes, and looks at practical solutions to this problem.

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