ABSTRACT

As a component of the larger electronic discovery (eDiscovery) program, which can be thought of as a data-mining exercise to gather Electronically stored information (ESI), digital forensic practitioners will be called upon to provide subject matter and technical expertise to assist in discovering and producing relevant ESI. Sometimes, eDiscovery is used interchangeably with digital forensics, which is misleading. The term eDiscovery is used to describe disclosure of evidence during a litigation, whereas digital forensics describes the scientific principles, methodologies, and techniques to gather and process digital evidence. Within the United States, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) governs all civil actions and proceedings to secure a just and speedy procedure. These rules apply to the processes followed to prepare and produce ESI during the eDiscovery process. Deriving from the efforts of the Working Group on Electronic Document Production and Retention (WG1), the Sedona Principles were first published in 2004 to address the production of ESI for legal discovery.