By Shirley Gorman, Payne Consulting Group

Discovery is an important part of any case, whether or not the case actually goes all the way to trial. The goal of any litigator during the discovery process is to uncover incriminating evidence about the other party's case. Using technology to organize and review all of the evidence submitted and received during the discovery process can help you before and during a trial.

Forms of discovery

Depositions

A deposition is a form of testimony or series of statements given under oath. Depositions give you an opportunity to question, or "depose," members of the other party. Your goal in deposing the other party is to garner as much information as possible for use in the case.

Written discovery

Written discovery is sometimes referred to as "formal" discovery. You submit written questions and requests for information to an opposing party's attorney, and they respond within a specific time frame — typically 30 days. Types of written discovery include:

• Requests for information  These requests — also known as interrogatories — are usually phrased as commands (for example, "Identify all parties attending <event>").
• Requests for production  These are requests for documents, files, e-mail messages, and other types of tangible evidence and information.
• Requests for admission  These requests have a narrow focus and direct the recipient to admit or deny a factual assertion.

Preparing evidence for discovery

Before you submit evidence to a requesting party for discovery, it must first be organized and recorded. Data that you present in "hard copy," or printed format, should be numbered and labeled. Tools that can help to streamline this process include:

• A document index in the form of a Microsoft Office Word 2003 file listing all of the evidence received from the opposing party.
• Sequentially numbered labels placed on each item for submission. Labels can be generated from within Word manually or by using an automated sequential numbering tool.

Cleaning out hidden information

More evidence is now stored and submitted in electronic format than ever before. In addition to the information contained within the text of the files themselves, other hidden information, known as metadata, is stored in each document. Metadata might provide revealing information if you don't remove the metadata from the document prior to submitting it as evidence through e-mail.

Case management solutions

A number of case management solutions are available on the market today to help you organize evidence you receive during the discovery process. Although some of these tools take time and effort to set up and maintain, they are well worth the extra effort.

Solutions might range from a simple Microsoft Office Access database to software designed specifically for this purpose. Many of these products provide tools that you can use to import deposition transcriptions, scanned files, coded data, narrative notes, and other types of information. You can even use them to perform simple-to-complex searches to quickly retrieve information you might need both before and during trial.

Use tools to manage the discovery process

With the rapidly expanding need for litigators to manage electronic evidence, technology solutions provide you with the ability to handle, analyze, and efficiently leverage the masses of information typically obtained during the discovery process. These tools are indispensable and help you build the best possible case for your client.

More information

• About comparing and merging documents
• Compare documents side by side
• Compare documents with the Legal blackline option
• Find and remove metadata (hidden information) in your legal documents
• Restrict access to legal documents with Office 2003

About the author   Shirley Gorman is Vice President of Client Relations for Payne Consulting Group, a software training and development company headquartered in Seattle, Washington.