Whether the case involves an individual or a large corporation with far-flung offices, the way information is stored, retrieved, and used in litigation has been forever changed. We carry vast amounts of data on hand-held devices and mobile phones; we move information from place to place with removable drives; our automobiles record information about us; we are more and more likely to create information that is never printed on a piece paper. It is stored in an electronic file and often exchanged by email. The hard copy business letter and memo has been largely replaced by the electronic. Our conversations are now recorded in email, in text messages, by twittering, on social networking sites, and are all too often stored on a hard drive not just as a retrievable file, but as unintentionally stored information that survives in a recoverable formant for years.

This change in how we keep information has not been lost on the courts. Litigants are required to know what electronic information they have, to take steps to preserve that information from destruction, and to produce it in litigation. The expense and burden of electronic discovery, when not properly prepared for, can become the single most expensive element of litigating a case. In fact, it can become so expensive that it is not economically feasible to pursue litigation.

Doerner, Saunders, Daniel & Anderson, L.L.P. has kept itself and its attorneys on the cutting edge of electronic discovery and records retention. Tom Q. Ferguson presents The Discovery of Electronically Stored Information.