|
02.06.06
Electronic Discovery Market
On The Rise
 By
Jason Lee Miller
In the United States, companies worth over $1 billion are handling about 147 lawsuits.
That's more good news for lawyers, but it's also good news for the data storage
and electronic discovery industry that manages and scrounges up data among petabytes
of information.
AP Technology Writer Brain Bergstein points out that the entire Internet
Archive totals one petabyte. The value of a company being able to store and
sift through that data is immense, especially in a litigation-centric environment
where corporations like Enron (and more scrupulous ones) are called on to release
the goods for court.
Growing at about 35 percent a year, the overall electronic discovery market is
now worth nearly $2 billion.
"Nothing's in the file cabinets anymore,"
Michele Lange, staff attorney for legal technologies at electronic discovery center
Kroll Ontrack Inc., told the AP. She was referring to the increased usage of email
and instant messenger over paper memos.
Add in the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act of 2002 requiring strict archival practices and you now have a legal necessity
to add to the practical.
Since the infamous Enron scandal, offshoots of traditional electronic discovery
ends have arisen (perhaps for publicity for a product) that allow anyone to search
the Enron's
email archives. Enron emails were released by the Federal Regulatory Energy
Commission.
Websites have been established for the sole purpose of allowing Web browsers to
dig through the email of the guilty as well as the innocent.
About the Author:
Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
|
