Originally published in the June 2025 issue of Trial® magazine by the American Association for Justice®, attorney Suzanne Clark, CEDS—of counsel at Beasley Allen Law Firm, longtime ACEDS Jacksonville board member, a board member of the Complex Litigation E-Discovery Forum (CLEF), and a planning committee member of the annual UF Law E-Discovery Conference—delivers a must-read roadmap for trial lawyers wrestling with ever-expanding evidence sources.
Clark maps today’s sprawling evidence terrain, from “mobile devices, collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, text- and auto-delete messaging apps, shared drives, and cloud accounts”, and stresses that smart discovery begins long before a Rule 26(f) call. With ACEDS members submitting a flood of questions about mobile collections, her reminder resonates:
“When it comes to your client’s mobile device evidence, understand what you need to collect and how to collect it competently.”
Key takeaways for your next discovery plan:
- Dig deep on mobile forensics. Full-file-system extractions can surface deleted data critical to causation and damages but are not necessary in every case.
- Tame Slack & Teams early. Misconfigured searches and auto-deletes can derail productions and lead to sanctions.
- Plan for disappearing messages. New FTC/DOJ guidance makes preserving Snapchat-style ephemeral data a priority that can’t be ignored.
If your strategy still treats ESI as “just an IT problem,” Clark’s article serves as your reality check and perfect preparation for aspiring Certified E-Discovery Specialists.
Read Clark’s complete Trial® article
This post is a brief, permission-based summary. © 2025 American Association for Justice®. Reprinted with permission.
