Most of the effort during the e-discovery process is put forth during the litigation hold and production phases. Given the focus on these two areas, the relatively simple task of data collection is sometimes overlooked.

In practice, an incomplete data collection affects the production of documents and may even raise questions about the adequacy of a party’s litigation hold. No party wants to be on the losing end of a motion for sanctions, or worse, a motion for default.

Email is usually at the top of the food chain because it is the predominant communications tool used by most organizations today. Typically, a client’s email sever is the first place one looks to collect data. However, it’s not enough to just collect messages from the email server. Mail store size restrictions or even just a personal preference may result in the storage of email on areas other than the email server. 

In essence, a thorough data collection requires the collection of email files from workstations, laptops, personal digital assistants and smartphones as well. This may include mail store files (e.g., .PST, .OST, .NSF, etc.) as well as loose message files (.msg, .html, etc.) Attorneys must think hard about where email files are located outside of the server. As one can see, the importance of email can’t be understated. Many cases can be won and lost on recovering email alone.

After email, standard file types are typically collected. These include Microsoft Office suite documents, Adobe Acrobat, text files, and image file types (.TIFF, .jpeg, etc.) The collection of nonemail file types should not end here. 

It is important to look for any proprietary or sector-specific files. An organization may use a proprietary database to store information, so it’s vital to find out how these databases are used. For example, a company’s database may analyze data and prepare reports as a .REPT file. These reports may be relevant to the litigation, but since .REPT is not a standard file type, it would not be identified during the collection.
 
Sector-specific files, on the other hand, include applications such as AutoDesk’s AutoCAD software, which is used by many companies to help with electronic and three-dimensional design. Here it is important to know a client’s industry. Such files can also contain data critical to a case. Sector-specific files are often easily overlooked.

Equally important to the forms of data collected is how it is collected. It’s vital that all metadata be maintained when collecting vast amounts of data. Use software specifically designed to do this, such as Robocopy or XXCopy.

The consequences of a slipshod data collection are many and could easily affect the outcome of your case. Judges these days are also much less lenient when it comes to compliance with e-discovery requests. Attorneys that don’t collect the right types of data may not comply with the discovery requests. That leads to adverse inferences, monetary penalties, and, worst case scenario, a default judgment.