Moirae Digital is engaged in the recovery of Electronically Stored Information (ESI), sometimes described as "e-discovery". ESI may be lost, deleted or manipulated. Moirae Digital recovers that data and can in many instances advise if it has been altered. In an ordinary civil trial more than 90% of the documentary evidence will be ESI and its integrity and admissibility will be a central issue.
The simple act of turning on a computer can alter and potentially overwrite relevant information. Accessing e-mail or other documents changes critical time stamps and may subject information to claims of manipulation and difficulty with authentication. E-mail or documents containing vital evidence which reflect a “last accessed" or “last modified” time stamp after the commencement of a claim can be rejected as inadmissible evidence. Moirae can recover this data without any modification to the authenticating meta data.
Moirae Digital and many others believe that the forensically sound recovery of ESI will become a mandatory discovery procedure, not just in the court system but in any transaction that requires digital due diligence investigation. There are speakers who have expressed the opinion that the failure to retain a digital forensics expert may be malpractice for attorneys. It would be tantamount to trying a case in a language you do not speak.
Moirae Digital also consults on retention and destruction policies for ESI in day to day business that protects from claims of evidence tampering or destruction. Moirae Digital assists in the due diligence process for accountants and others in business or asset acquisition, and restores ESI when manipulated by unskilled employees or intentionally destroyed by skilled and angry employees.
Moirae Digital is green. When compared to “paper” discovery digital discovery has a miniscule carbon and environmental footprint.
Increasingly, courts rely on digital data to make proceedings more efficient.
"Unless and until parties agree not to pursue e-discovery, the parties have an obligation to preserve potentially relevant digital information. Parties who fail to comply with that obligation do so at the risk of facing spoliation sanctions."
Mosaid Technologies, Inc., v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 348 F.Supp.2d 332, 333 (D.N.J. Dec. 7, 2004)
In short, it is not sufficient to notify all employees of a litigation hold and expect that the party will then retain and produce all relevant (digital) information. Counsel must take affirmative steps to monitor compliance so that all sources of discoverable information are identified and searched.
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC 2004 WL 1620866 at 16 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 20, 2004)