Digital Forensics

Innovative Discovery's Forensic and Digital Investigations Department spearheads comprehensive and defensible digital evidence collection and forensic solutions for the civil and criminal litigation process.

Over the course of the last decade, the realm of electronically stored information has been moved to the forefront of the litigation process. Federal, State and Local courts now recognize that the propensity of evidence introduced into courtrooms is of a digital nature. The generation and storage of electronic evidence has not only resulted in the dramatic expansion in volume of evidence, but has created a myriad of issues for the comprehensive and complete capture of that evidence for the litigation process. The new Amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure help to codify and assist litigation firms in laying down a process for the collection, review, dissemination and admissibility of electronically stored information into courtrooms. The trained consultants of Innovative Discovery are well-versed and are experts at helping law firms and other bodies meet the requirements of the new Federal Rules.

Because of these facts, there has also been a commensurate increase in the attention and scrutiny imposed by the courts and government agencies as to the methodology and means of information capture and processing of this "digital evidence." This is evident by the legal "teeth" created by the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 (also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) as well as, high profile cases where the methods used to capture and process "digital evidence" resulted in direct and substantive measures against one of the litigating parties.

This draws attention to the fact that as the volume and complexity of digital information has grown, so have the barriers and pitfalls involved in isolating, capturing and processing electronic evidence. When the majority of information was held in hard-copy media or paper, the evidence capture process simply involved physically finding relevant files, harvesting them and ultimately reproducing them. While the end objective for electronic evidence has remained the same, the task of finding or isolating evidence has become considerably more complex. The fluid nature of the evolution of IT infrastructures, constantly changing and evolving technologies, along with the costs of storing dated information has created an environment where information can seemingly disappear. While the information simply does not vanish, it is often in avertedly migrated to areas within IT systems where its retrieval requires a learned and methodical "forensic" solution. This, combined with increased court and agency attention to legal due process for proper evidence capture, has created a demand trend in the litigation support market for a total and forensic oriented solution. The next five years will see a dramatic acceleration in this trend.

The use of forensics in the realm of electronically stored information has become a necessary component in the path to collecting and producing defensible and actionable evidence. In today's day and age, digital forensics and a "revamping" of the electronic discovery (e-Discovery) now allow litigation firms to meet their clients’ needs with as little error and "guesswork" as possible. This can include collection of evidence from custodian workstations, shared folders on a network server, profiles found dispersed throughout an enterprise infrastructure, electronic mail (email) storage, analysis, and collection, and the oft-forgotten archival and backup media collection, reconstruction, and analysis. Further analytical processes can bring to light deleted information or data that was lost due to fraud or corrupt or damaged hardware and software. This necessary trend toward forensics also allows clients to access, more often than not, data which has been encrypted or protected, and which is being purposefully withheld.

Innovative Discovery has ever been at the forefront of this trend, and is very knowledgeable in the Rules of Evidence, Forensic Methodologies, new trends in the field of Digital Evidence Collection and Capture, and most importantly, consulting and conferring advice to clients who want to ensure that their processes are sound and defensible.

"From the Hard Drive to the Courtroom" - Innovative Discovery's Forensics and Digital Investigations consultants offer a total solution, with the innate ability to assist and offer counsel to clients from the beginning of an investigation to its ultimate conclusion; it's presentation and admittance into evidence in a courtroom setting. This includes Innovative Discovery's full forensic solution: the capture and collection of relevant electronically stored information. This is now offered in such a way that it can be conducted live, over a network, with zero loss in productivity or profit to the Client, (Network Forensic Solutions.) On-staff consultants work seamlessly from the collection process to the Electronic Data Discovery process, and provide an integrated solution that takes into account accepted practices, documentation thereof, complete chain of custody, spoliation determination and acceptable isolation into relevant sub-sets, all before it arrives as a finished product. The cost of producing evidence is severely reduced when unnecessary or irrelevant data is removed from the equation before it is surrendered to the Client.

What this all means to the Client is that they can no longer take for granted the process in which data is collected for use in litigation. Ever-changing standards and rules of compliance require a learned and experienced approach to the realm of electronic discovery, and there are now those who can provide a total and in-house solution to all of the Client's needs. Collecting data for litigation is always at the mercy of the body before which they are litigating as to which standards are acceptable. Until such time that a formalized and COMPLETE set of standards are accepted, Clients must rely on Best Practices and tried and true methodologies which spill over from the criminal realm of litigation and are now shaping the new Rules of Civil Procedure. Law firms can NO LONGER rely on directing internal IT professionals in their Client's firms in the collection of electronic data from Sources "X," "Y," and "Z" in response to a discovery request. Forensic precision and accountability must be applied to the equation in order to ensure that all the data presented is defensible and uncompromised.

Innovative Discovery offers its Clients a complete solution that encompasses all aspects of the "Electronic Discovery" realm, and provides all services in-house so that data is not broken up and sent to third party vendors for the complete and total solution. Those services, coupled with the experience and counsel of its consultants, who range from the United States Military, Federal and State Law Enforcement, and Corporate Investigators from leading industries, all help to ensure that the process is seamless, airtight, and backed up by experience from the "collection to the courtroom". Innovative Discovery also offers its Clients Expert Testimony and Deposition experience and the ability to assist Clients in all facets of their litigation support needs. This course has led Innovative Discovery to long-lasting and successful relationships with our Customers, a personal approach to conducting business, and the wherewithal to steer Clients on the proper and most cost-effective ways to conduct their electronic discovery practices.