e-Discovery in a tough climate

The use of e-Discovery will change in 2017, according to market predictions made by e-Discovery technology supplier Kroll Ontrack.

It will increasingly be used in compliance as well as its usual role in litigation and investigations, as companies seek to identify compliance concerns and anticipate potential issues, the global supplier said.

It will also play an important role in helping companies comply with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a tough data protection regulation currently being implemented across the EU. Organisations will need the relevant tools, such as mobile discovery, where data needs to cross borders to comply with discovery requests. The GDPR also has strict rules protecting individuals’ right to be forgotten, and organisations will need the relevant tools to find and erase personal data.

There is a proliferation of new ways of storing data, and channels that move data from one platform to another. Consequently, a diverse range of evidence sources are being used to build a picture of what happened in a legal matter. Social media and satellite navigation systems are gaining in importance in cases.

Tim Philips, managing director at Kroll Ontrack, said: “2017 is set to be another landmark year in terms of the adoption of e-Discovery technology and the evolution of e-Discovery technology itself.”