Law Firm Services
eDiscovery is a new and powerful litigation weapon
Today, Ninety-Eight percent (98%), of ALL businesses conduct their operations by computer!
Electronically Stored Information (ESI) estimated growth per annum has now reached 125%
and shows no signs of slowing down.
To succeed in today's legal world attorneys must be or have access to experts
in all phases of ESI management. The following link will show you why:
recent article about eDiscovery.
Successful case management today must begin with complete understanding of ESI.
This means the attorneys must know crucial facts about the
Who, What, When, Where, and Why (5 W's) of relative case ESI
and command the ability of total discernment.
This task is well beyond the physical and mental skill sets of most humans,
and that is why man invented computers.
Top8 and its strategic partners provides all the necessary skill sets
to comprehensively discern key ESI case elements leaving the attorneys free to
do what they do best: Counseling!
Top8 helps lawyers master and use eDiscovery for a competitive advantage
Among the many ESI requirements of the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 26-37,
document preservation is crucial.
Top8 software applications and consultants will identify those data 5 W's
then devise the best management plan for "discoverable" ESI.
The plan will also insure these data are preserved and protected as required by the FRCP
in an intense granular fashion guarding against even the hint of data corruption.
Top8 and associates will build and maintain the technology bridge
between your firm and your client's IT management team
Top8 personnel are licensed investigators in ESI, computer forensics,
and the related data network specialties including security,
spy ware, and virus detection.
As your technical partner Top8 will bring complete ESI management services.
The following links demonstrate our current offerings:
Initial Case Assessment
Our Initial Case Assessment comes into play before the case is filed.
You may need to quickly assess the merits of the case. Not being able to rely completely on what your clients
tell you about the content of their hard drives, you may want to search it yourself.
Another situation
where an Initial Case Assessment may come up is when you are considering issuing a request for eDiscovery
to the opposing side. This may result in a request directed back to your clients, and you will want to know
what to expect in this case.
When you require this kind of assessment, our service can give you an advantage. We collect the data
on the forensics standard, preserve the chain of custody, and make this data defensible in court.
This collection also assures that you have fulfilled your preservation duty,
as far as the existing documents are concerned, and your clients can continue with their business.
We help you to establish a future preservation policy, and this policy is also professional and defensible in court.
We put the data on our servers and make it searchable by you. The search uses the familiar Google search interface,
and allows you to search from your computer. We provide you with a secure login to our servers, where you can examine
the details of a specific case in question.
What is very important, this service is truly affordable. Considering the benefits that the Initial Cases
Assessment provides, your clients will immediately see why it is cost-efficient and useful. You, as an attorney,
will get an earlier and more extensive overview of the circumstances of the case. This will allow
both an earlier involvement and afford more chances of winning. Alternatively, you may find that it is
in the client's best interest to settle. In this case too, your advice will be based on a solid foundation
provided by the knowledge of the facts.
Early Case Assessment
Early Case Assessment
is similar to the Initial Case Assessment above, with a slight but important difference:
the case has been filed, and one of your tasks is to quickly gain insight into the facts of the case. Here too you
cannot completely rely on what your clients tell you. They themselves may not be aware of all the information
contained in their ESI.
Since the production request has not come in yet, clients may be reluctant to spend on full eDiscovery.
This is where Early Case Assessment comes in. It provides you with a way to see the documents for yourself,
as an early preview of what the full production request will show. This services gives you all the
advantages of the Initial Case Assessment above. It is affordable and cost-efficient for the benefits it brings.
Our consultants may be more involved in this case, helping you to do the searches and prepareing documents for review.
Most important, you, the lawyer, will get a solid knowledge of the facts. This will allow to you to advice your
client on the expected outcome, on the possibilities of winning, or on the advisability of settling at an early date.
Complete eDiscovery
Once the case is started, the next step related to eDiscovery is a meet-and-confer. This is where
our technical and legal experts give you another advantage. Having such experts on your side assures you and
your client that your opinions on the data availability are sound and can be substantiated. You can also
request production with the knowledge that your requests are reasonable and at the same time
will likely result in sufficent information for you.
Our Complete eDiscovery service is delivered through partnerships
with established proven eDiscovery players, who have delivered quality results month after month, year after year.
We remains your sole point of contact and project coordinator, thus providing you with the high quality
project management.
Forensics
Forensics investigation can be invaluable in litigation.
Through the forensics investigation one can discover file erasure, reformatting, and other kinds of
data tampering, giving substance to spoliation claims.
Hardly ever can electronic data be erased completely. Moreover, if it has been erased, or if the
hardware has been destroyed, this may lead to a judge instructing the jury to apply adverse
inference. Thus the possibility of a forensics investigation, done professionally, and then
the actual investigation itself, serves a potent fact-finder.
Consider, for example,
family cases where spouses' activities often leave track on their computer. In fact, according
to one Washington lawyer, 65% of his cases involving forensics and eDiscovery are family cases.
Company merger, trade secrets, and non-compete are just some more examples which frequently involve
forensics analysis. Our experts can help you define what is discoverable, and then help you find it.
Investigations
Investigations can provide significant insights
into the circumstances of the case. With our social lives involing the web, people hardly
live private lives any longer. Much of what they do is recorded on web servers, as well as public and private
databases. Much of it is discoverable, if one knows where to look.
Just discovering the web sites of which someone is a member can provide valuable information.
Of course, much more is available, deeper than Google searches, of which this is only an example.
Our associates are specialists at such investigations. With the social and technological landscape
constantly changing, they maintain current knowledge leading to fast and effective research.
Other Services
Network protection and compliance
Identity theft protection
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