As pharmaceutical companies operate in a continuous research and development environment, they encounter big data and information management challenges that hinders meeting deadlines and budgetary goals. For litigation readiness and to commercialize their intellectual property, pharmaceutical companies should utilize data management systems and eDiscovery technologies to securely preserve knowledge repositories and efficiently retrieve and present crucial evidence to get vindicated in a court of law.
Fewer Headaches for Big Pharma
First Consider the Constitution
First, consider the Constitution. Judges, after all, must do more than merely consider it. They take an oath to uphold it. So any theory of judging must be measured against that foundational duty. Those who would have judges behave like legislators, imposing their moral convictions and utility calculi on others, face an uphill battle, reconciling their judicial philosophy with our founding document.
Framework for Law Firm eDiscovery and Tactical Data Management Committee
A prudent measure for any law firm specializing in litigation is to maintain a standing committee on electronic discovery and tactical data management. The consequences of mismanaging electronically stored information (ESI) is ruinous for both the law firm and the client. The Committee enables the firm to create an internal knowledge base about the challenges posed by discovery information, and to educate litigation teams on mitigating those challenges.
Keyword Searching Considerations
As the recent advancements in Technology Assisted Review (TAR) and analytics tools reduce eDiscovery cost – keyword searching remains the core solution for collection, review, and deposition preparations. The attorneys can leverage an opportunity to test the performance of search term syntax using documents from a preserved discovery collection. Keyword searching facilitates opposing counsels to negotiate explicit, system neutral, controlled parameters for electronically stored information (ESI) in discovery.
Preaching to the Choir
Recent studies show how people try to convince their ideological opposites that there is a very good reason why conservatives and liberals quite often seem to be talking past each other, and despite a great deal of earnest public debate, relatively few people are effective in persuading their ideological opposites to change their views. At times, it even appears that debating with each other backfires and results in both sides hardening their opposing views. The lesson for trial lawyers is that they should be more effective advocates and should keep in mind that the target audience (the jury, the judge, etc.) may have very different values.
Proposal for Data Protection Reform in the European Union
At the time of this writing, each of the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) implement data protection rules in their own unique way; however, a recent proposition by the European Commission (E.C.) could soon change implementation rules of data protection in the EU. On March 15, 2012, the E.C. proposed a comprehensive reform to the 1995 EU Data Protection Rules that included a plan to do away with divergent investigation and enforcement practices.
Reduction of Legacy Data in the Face of Multiple Litigation Holds
Managing a reduction effort is fraught with potential exposure to spoliation liability; partly because of the inherent difficulty of the task, but even more due to the challenges posed by adversaries attempting to take full advantage of any misstep. The effort requires a cautious application of the corporate risk management function. To be fully defensible, a procedure for the reduction of legacy data must be transparent, secure and in conformity with prevailing decisions law and best practices.
The Knovos Approach to eDiscovery Processing
Processing electronically stored information (ESI) for discovery is a multifaceted challenge. There is no universally agreed upon path from the beginning of the process to the end. Every project requires a new variation to that approach. The proprietary processing system Knovos has developed consists of more than forty modules, each designed to perform a specific function and to link seamlessly with other modules. The workflow can be customized to accommodate the unique requirements of each client and each case.