Article: A Computer Forensics Strategy to Sink Your Opponent's Legal Battleship

[Shawn]

Successful litigation often hinges on a single relevant e-mail or
document -- anchored, traveling or floating freely somewhere in a sea
of non-relevant data.

In a search for that document or e-mail, the standard body of
reasonably accessible evidence may not be enough. When this happens,
forensic techniques can pinpoint the single audit trail, evidence
fragment or encrypted document vital to the case.

Ever played "Battleship"? In that table-game classic, and in an
evidence search, strategy is crucial.

Also, the recent Federal Rules of Civil Procedure amendments regarding
electronic data and computer forensics provide another criterion for
litigators to think about while determining what to request.

In litigation involving computers and information systems, some
technical knowledge can deliver real power. With knowledge of how data
sets relate to one another, a lawyer can find caches of relevant data.
The lawyer or litigation team can also determine whether:

A timeline must be reconstructed;

Possible malfeasance should be investigated; or

Data thought lost must be recovered.

This approach effectively targets required case information and helps
determine when extra measures such as computer forensics are needed.

Full story here:
http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1174381423883

Shawn