One year since we last covered it, social media continues to grow in prominence in eDiscovery and to present technical and legal challenges to practitioners
As a review of almost any day’s news will demonstrate, social media is currently an influential, indispensable part of American life – for better or for worse. Our overall usage and our generation of new materials on these platforms both continue to grow each year:
And, as social media has been working its way ever deeper into our relationships, our professional activities, and our culture as a whole, its impact on discovery has been growing as well. As we noted when we reviewed this topic last year:
- The Advisory Committee Notes to the FRCP’s December 2015 Amendments include an explicit reference to the need to understand and consider social media sources during preservation
- “It is important that counsel become familiar with their clients’ information systems and digital data — including social media — to address these issues” [emphasis added]
- An August 2016 review by X1 uncovered more than 9,500 cases from the preceding 12 months in which social media evidence played a significant role
- “This represents over a 50 percent increase from 2015” [emphasis added]
When we reviewed this topic last year, the most recent data then available showed that 77% of responding law firms had handled cases involving the collection and processing of social media data in the prior year. Today, that number is up to 84% – an increase of 9%. Moreover, 28% of responding law firms now indicate dealing with social media in 11 or more matters in the prior year – a 59% increase from the year before.
Unfortunately, the nature, diversity, and volume of social media data continue to present a variety of technical and legal challenges for practitioners. So, we are revisiting this topic – one of our most popular of last year – updated with new usage data, new revelations about available ESI, new rule amendments and cases, and more. As it did last year, the program will cover:
- What sources there are
- What data they contain
- How it can be collected
- How it can be authenticated
- Issues of ethics, reliability, and more
Please join me on Wednesday, July 25th, at 1:00 PM EDT for this program, by clicking here to reserve your free seat now.
We look forward to seeing you on the webinar.
About the Author
Matthew Verga
Director of Education
Matthew Verga is an electronic discovery expert proficient at leveraging his legal experience as an attorney, his technical knowledge as a practitioner, and his skills as a communicator to make complex eDiscovery topics accessible to diverse audiences. A thirteen-year industry veteran, Matthew has worked across every phase of the EDRM and at every level from the project trenches to enterprise program design. He leverages this background to produce engaging educational content to empower practitioners at all levels with knowledge they can use to improve their projects, their careers, and their organizations.
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