Extract from Ryan Hemmel’s article “What’s the Hype about Hyperlinked Documents?”
Hyperlinked documents are increasingly common in enterprise work environments and pose some unique challenges for eDiscovery. ProSearchers Ryan Hemmel and Luke Groth joined with ACEDS in a recent webinar to explain hyperlinked documents and offer best practices on dealing with this content in eDiscovery workflows.
Here we offer a brief recap and the link below to view the webinar on demand.
A hyperlinked document is shared via a URL or link, directing the recipient to a file stored on a cloud server. Unlike traditional attachments, the underlying file is not transmitted to the recipient but remains under the sender’s control. This distinction is crucial for eDiscovery because it affects how documents are collected, reviewed, and produced. For example, while a traditional attachment is static and unchangeable once sent, a hyperlinked document can be edited continuously, with recipients always seeing the latest version.
Challenges in eDiscovery
The shift to hyperlinked documents introduces several complications in the eDiscovery process:
- Search Limitations: Early case assessment (ECA) and filtering tools often cannot search the content of hyperlinked files. These documents must be downloaded first to be searchable, complicating the discovery process and potentially leading to incomplete data collection.
