The duty of (identification and) preservation is a foundational concept in our legal system that grows out of the common law concept of “spoliation,” which is more than 200 years old. Essentially, if courts exist to make determinations about disputed facts, and if the trier of fact must make those determinations using the available evidence, then no litigant should be allowed to gain advantage in those determinations by hiding or destroying relevant evidence before the trier of fact can consider it.

As we have seen in numerous contexts, however, ESI spoliation remains a frequent issue – particularly in the gray area where new devices, applications, or services are transitioning from niche adoption to mainstream use. Hence the importance of these phases in an eDiscovery effort: almost every other type of failure can be fixed with adequate time and money, but once unique, relevant ESI is gone, it’s gone.

In this One Hour of CA MCLE, educational webinar, XDD Director of Education Matthew Verga, JD, will review the fundamentals practitioners need to know about identification and preservation to fulfill their duties of technology competence and preservation, including:

• Triggers for the duty
• Legal and technological scope
• Imagination and investigation
• The role of legal holds
• Common pitfalls

Presented by:
Matthew Verga, Director of Education at Xact Data Discovery

Introduction by:
June Hunter, SDPA Vice President & Education and Paralegal and IT Support Services Specialist at CGS3