Last week, we discussed nine advantages to using a forensic expert for collection and discovery.  Here’s another useful list for you.  This recent article from Forensic Discovery identifies at least six sources for email in discovery.

In the article How Many Sources Can There Be for an Email Collection? You Might Be Surprised!, the article discusses several potential sources and forms of email for discovery.  Email can be stored within various ways within an organization and some organizations may be storing emails in multiple ways. Not to mention that there are instances where parties involved in the case may be using personal email for business correspondence, like this case.  Each source and form of email requires a different approach to forensically sound collection.  Here’s just one of the at least six sources for email in discovery, one that is sometimes missed in discovery:

MSG or EML Files: Have you ever saved an individual Outlook or Outlook Express message? You can do so, and each message is saved as an individual file.  Outlook saves them as MSG files and Outlook Express (which isn’t as commonly used anymore but could still be encountered in legacy environments) saves them as EML files.  Just as with PST files, it’s important to interview custodians and assess computers, workstations and storage media to identify the potential existence of these files for collection.

So, what are the rest of the at least six sources for email in discovery?  I won’t steal their thunder, you can check out their article here on the specifics.

So, what do you think?  How many sources and forms of email have you dealt with in your litigation cases?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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