Should hyperlinked files be treated as modern attachments? We asked that as a poll question during E-Discovery Day yesterday.

Yesterday, eDiscovery Today sponsored a terrific webinar titled Unlinking the Chaos: Navigating Hyperlinked Files in eDiscovery. We had a fantastic panel, with Kelly Twigger, CEO of eDiscovery Assistant, Brett Burney, Vice President of eDiscovery Consulting at Nextpoint Law Group and Tom O’Connor, Director of the Gulf Legal Technology Center, joining me to discuss the considerations associated with hyperlinked files. As I expected, Kelly, Brett and Tom all had terrific insights and recommendations for the audience and the feedback we’ve received was great!

Not only that, but the discussion on the Chat with the 348(!) attendees was also terrific. Several people provided information, asked and answered questions and reacted to the comments from the panelists. I plan to review those comments and publish a follow-up post next week.

Now to the poll question. We asked the audience “Should hyperlinked files be treated as ‘modern attachments’ and produced along with the emails containing the links?” This is the same question we asked on the eDiscovery Today State of the Industry report survey (which ends today). Like that survey, we didn’t provide a simple “yes” or “no” option, we provided two variations of “yes” and two variations of “no” as follows:

• Yes, ALL hyperlinked files should be produced for relevant and responsive emails as they provide context to the relevant email
• Yes, hyperlinked files should be produced for relevant and responsive emails but ONLY if the hyperlinked files are relevant and responsive as well
• No, hyperlinked files should not be produced with relevant and responsive emails, but they should be produced separately if they are independently relevant and responsive
• No, hyperlinked files should not be produced at all, either with relevant and responsive emails or independently

212 attendees answered the poll question and here is the result:

• 34% of respondents answered: “Yes, ALL hyperlinked files should be produced for relevant and responsive emails as they provide context to the relevant email”
• 46% of respondents answered: “Yes, hyperlinked files should be produced for relevant and responsive emails but ONLY if the hyperlinked files are relevant and responsive as well”
• 20% of respondents answered: “No, hyperlinked files should not be produced with relevant and responsive emails, but they should be produced separately if they are independently relevant and responsive”
• 0% of respondents answered: “No, hyperlinked files should not be produced at all, either with relevant and responsive emails or independently”

In other words, 80% of respondents said hyperlinked files should be treated as ‘modern attachments’ and produced along with the emails containing the links. Only 20% of respondents said they shouldn’t be treated as ‘modern attachments’.

Very surprising results! So, what will 542+ respondents (the current number of respondents as of this morning) say in the eDiscovery Today State of the Industry report survey? You’ll find out next month!

So, what do you think? Should hyperlinked files be treated as modern attachments? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.