Collection | Practical Law

Collection | Practical Law

Collection

Collection

Practical Law Glossary Item 0-521-0026 (Approx. 3 pages)

Glossary

Collection

The process of collecting electronically stored information (ESI) in discovery, most often in response to a request for documents, a subpoena, or other request for the production of ESI.
Counsel can collect ESI from any data source, including:
  • Internal or external computer hard drives.
  • CDs.
  • DVDs.
  • Flash drives.
  • Back-up tapes.
  • Portable devices (such as mobile phones and hand-held tablet computers).
  • Networks.
  • File servers.
  • Databases.
  • Cloud-based services or programs.
  • Devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT).
  • Workplace collaboration tools.
Often, the person or entity responding to a request for ESI retains an e-discovery vendor or uses an in-house litigation technologist to collect it. If counsel intend to produce metadata (or use metadata to filter the ESI), the collecting entity must take care to preserve the original metadata during collection.
Following collection, counsel may process and filter the collected ESI and then upload it to a document review platform for review and production.