Leveraging Metadata as Evidence and Avoiding Inadvertent ESI Disclosure in Litigation

Metadata lurking beneath the surface of all documents can expose privileged information and reveal strategic data about a document and its history. Managing metadata in ESI has inherent legal risks and is an increasingly critical element in litigation and discovery.

Counsel must understand the mechanics of metadata to plan and implement proper procedures to avoid inadvertently jeopardizing privileged or counsel's own strategic information. Despite the risks, metadata is a powerful litigation tool for counsel. Metadata can be analyzed and used in litigation to authenticate evidence, as substantive direct evidence, and to highlight patterns, establish timelines, and expose gaps in the data.

Listen as our authoritative panel of litigators and e-discovery experts offers guidance for attorneys to leverage metadata as evidence in litigation. The panel will discuss best practices for managing complex metadata during litigation and for taking advantage of metadata analysis to provide substantive evidence and authenticate key information.

1. Understanding metadata
2. Tracking changes
3. Conversions to PDF, TIFF
4. Electronic redaction
5. Using metadata in litigation

The panel will review these and other key questions:

• What can counsel do to reduce or eliminate the risk of inadvertent disclosures with metadata?
• How can metadata authenticate evidence? How can metadata serve as substantive evidence?
• What are best practices for demanding the production of metadata?