Other Important Collection Sources – Collection Fundamentals Series, Part 8
A multi-part series on the essentials practitioners need to know about ESI collections
by Matthew Verga, JD, Xact Data Discovery
In “Collection and the Duty of Technology Competence,” we discussed lawyers’ duty of technology competence and the importance of understanding collection to fulfilling that duty. In “The Broad Scope of Collection,” we discussed the potential legal and technological scope of collection. In “How Computers Store ESI,” we discussed the operation of computer memory. In “Collecting and Recovering ESI from Computer Memory,” we discussed the technical process of collection. In “The Intersection of Technical and Legal Realities,” we discussed the intersection of that technical process with the legal requirements. In “Self-Collection and Its Risks,” we discussed the first of the three common collection approaches, and in “In-Person and Remote Collections,” we discussed the other two. In this final Part, we review a few other important collection sources you may face.
Thus far, we have spoken primarily about the collection of ESI materials from the computers of individual custodians, but most cases involve collection from a range of other sources as well. The fundamentals of computer memory operation and successful acquisition from that memory are the same regardless, but you still need to be aware of the other source types you may need to consider and the complications that they entail. The other major categories of sources are: enterprise systems, mobile devices, social media sources, and cloud sources.
