The Difference Between a Smile, a Wink, and a Blushing Grin: Emojis in E-Discovery
Respected professionals now use things that were once thought appropriate only for teenage conversations—because without them, we can come across as overly blunt or even rude. Just think about the difference between “I really hate my job” and “I really hate my job 😉”.
That’s why the ability to search and analyze emojis as part of your legal team’s process is becoming increasingly important. As Joe Sremack from the Berkeley Research Group says in a recent article in Today’s General Counsel:
“Attorneys who know where emojis are in their document sets have significant advantages. First, they will know whether emojis were properly processed and be better equipped to both defend their own e-discovery process and identify failures in the opposing party’s process. Second, they will be better at finding potentially responsive communications that do not respond to keyword searches.”
On the one hand, the approach to new data types is no different than with more familiar forms of electronically stored information (ESI): you identify the data within an organization and then decide how to handle it. The key is knowing what you have. Once you understand that, you can plan how to preserve and collect the data if litigation arises.
Following a preservation and collection checklist is one way to ensure your process stays on track when dealing with new data types:
- What data is currently being stored?
- How and where is that data preserved?
- How is that data accessed?
- What policies and procedures are in place, and are users trained for compliance?
- Are there clear channels of communication between all stakeholders (legal, IT, business units)?
- Are you working with outside counsel or consultants to create a reasonable process for preserving and collecting new data types?
For more on this, download the white paper produced by Berkeley Research Group and Exterro:
The Most Debated E-Discovery Issues: Preserving and Collecting New Data Type
