To help you get started, weve sifted through tens of thousands of interview reviews to find out some of the most common interview questions candidates get asked during recent interviews. If you have a job interview lined up, practice in front of a mirror or ask a friend or relative to listen to the following questions so you will be ready to put your best foot forward.
- From whom do I need to collect data? Individuals who have data that may be relevant to your litigation are called Custodians.
- What kind of data do I need to collect? …
- Where is the data located? …
- How do I collect and/or preserve the data?
What is eDiscovery? – An Introduction to DiscoveryBriefs
E Discovery Analyst Interview Questions
- Tell me about yourself?
- Tell me about your project What is plsql and questions related to sql
- What was my previous E-Discovery litigation / investigations experience and was I adept at using the industry technology platform?
- What do you know about this market?
- Request to make an oral presentation on subject matter of your choice.
- It wasnt a traditional interview, so no real questions asked.
- Have you been in a position previously where you were consultative with the end-client?
1. What is eDiscovery?
One distilled response: Since almost everything is electronic now, particularly how we work and communicate, companies are hired to collect that electronic data. It can be from computers, servers, cell phones, social media, etc., and experts upload it to electronic databases for attorneys to review and produce to opposing counsel. This is a simplified explanation of eDiscovery, but it’s generally effective in removing the intimidation factor.
In reality, yes, eDiscovery is much more complicated. There are many moving parts. There are numerous timelines to consider and plan for, including both the clients’ timelines, as well as internal timelines for all the machines and people to do what they need to do. There’s a whole new eDiscovery language to learn and/or teach, computers that can be trained to rank relevancy, and more tools, bells and whistles than most people have any idea what to do with. So, for someone who is having their first foray with eDiscovery, below is some basic foundational information, and questions to ask to get started.
2. When does the eDiscovery process start?
A top question that comes to mind is, “When do I engage outside help?” Usually, the answer to this is the sooner, the better. For instance, opposing counsel propounds Requests for Production asking for various communications and documents. Common initial thoughts can include:
- From whom do I need to collect data? Individuals who have data that may be relevant to your litigation are called Custodians.
- What kind of data do I need to collect? Examples of digital data include email, computer images, targeted collections of computers and/or servers, cell phones, hard copy documents, etc.
- Where is the data located? Ask your Custodians where they may have any data relevant to the litigation stored. Possible locations to think about are work-issued computers and cell phones, company servers, external hard drives, archive storage, online storage options and the cloud, company chat programs, personal computers and cell phones, social media accounts, etc.
- How do I collect and/or preserve the data? Many tools can be used for instituting a legal hold on data. Ask your eDiscovery experts about tools to determine which is right for you. When you’re ready to collect the data, it is ALWAYS recommended that you hire a forensics expert to collect your data for preservation. They have specialized tools to collect data that will maintain the integrity and defensibility of the data and the collection.
3. How does the eDiscovery process work?
There are plenty of forensics, collections and eDiscovery professionals, and experts who can help you start to answer these questions and build the framework for your eDiscovery project. Use them. They will help clue you into places that data resides that you may not have thought of yourself. They will also help you collect your data in a forensically sound and defensible manner so opposing counsel cannot challenge what was done.
Perform Early Case Assessment
Your data has now been identified, preserved and/or collected. Next steps include early data analysis of what you have (review reporting for categories of user created data vs system data) and discussions of options to best cull your data.
This might include any of the following:
- File Extension filtering: selecting data to either include or exclude based on file types and/or file extensions. For example, if your lawsuit primarily centers around individual communications, you can filter out file types such as computer system and program files that are not going to be relevant to your litigation, ultimately reducing the amount of data to be reviewed, as well as overall costs.
- Date Filtering: limiting the date range on the data that is processed/reviewed. Use caution, though. Even if there is a stated date range in the complaint, you should always go a little broader with any date range performed prior to processing the data to ensure that you do not need to dip back into the well.
- De- duplication (either within each custodian’s data, or globally across all custodians): Allows for removal of identical emails/files exchanged between custodians or within an individual’s dataset.
Using Custodian Questionnaires
There is an option that is often overlooked – using well-thought-out Custodian Questionnaires (CQ). BIA has long proposed the use of CQs to aid counsel at the early stages of matters to winnow down the broad custodian list to those who have the most involvement or are closest to the matter.
When a litigation hold is issued, it is typical and accepted practice to cast a wide net and place persons on hold who may have been tangentially involved in a matter. Then, as the case progresses, the individuals determined to not be involved may be released or may be left on hold but without collecting to preserve their ESI.
This is an ideal use of a CQ: To flush out those custodians who are more keenly aware and involved in a matter with electronic efficiency. A CQ can be distributed to people placed on legal hold and can contain qualifying questions to determine which custodians are the key custodians.
To help you get started, weve sifted through tens of thousands of interview reviews to find out some of the most common interview questions candidates get asked during recent interviews. If you have a job interview lined up, practice in front of a mirror or ask a friend or relative to listen to the following questions so you will be ready to put your best foot forward.
Conducting eDiscovery Interviews for Data Identification
Conducting eDiscovery Custodian interviews, as recently reported in Legaltech News, are an important and valuable resource, particularly useful to ferret out additional locations of electronically stored information (ESI). See the case cited in the article, Small v. University Medical Center (2:13-cv-0298-APG-PAL, July 13, 2018). The court, in its decision, enumerated many ESI deficiencies. As Philip Favro noted in the article, the court observed that the preservation deficiencies were due “in large part from its [defendant’s] failure to conduct effective interviews.”
At BIA, we realize that custodian interviews are a key part of the eDiscovery process of data identification, but they, in and of themselves, are done at a huge cost, both in client personnel time and in the time and resources used by counsel performing them resulting in high costs incurred for the clients, typically corporate parties involved in litigation.
FAQ
How do I prepare for eDiscovery?
- Know Where Your Data Is. Start by creating a detailed map of data within your company. …
- Set Up an eDiscovery Team. …
- Outline Procedures. …
- Choose a Comprehensive Platform. …
- Create a Consistent Review Team. …
- Set Up a Document Repository.
What is the purpose of eDiscovery?
What is the difference between discovery and eDiscovery?
What is an eDiscovery solution?
