Law firms
Attorneys decide what is relevant and privileged. We support the technical side: getting data found, kept intact and delivered in a form your review team can use, on the court’s schedule.
eDiscovery services and litigation support
Electronic discovery is the work of finding, preserving and handing over digital information that may become evidence. We support law firms, corporate clients, regulatory bodies and government agencies, and we operate internationally from our Cooper City, Florida office.
- Since 1996
- Operating internationally
- Based in Cooper City
What eDiscovery is, in plain terms
eDiscovery, also written e-discovery and short for electronic discovery, is the process of finding, preserving, collecting, reviewing and producing electronically stored information for a lawsuit, investigation or regulatory inquiry. That information, known as ESI, includes email, documents, chat messages, databases and anything else created and kept in digital form.
Almost everything an organization does leaves a digital record, so almost every dispute turns on data. Handled well, eDiscovery keeps that data intact, keeps the volume manageable and puts the right material in front of the lawyers on time. Handled badly, it costs more and can put a case at risk.
Find it
Work out which people, systems and devices hold information that bears on the matter.
Keep it intact
Stop deletion and changes, and record who handled the data and when.
Hand it over
Deliver what is relevant in the format the court and the other side expect.
eDiscovery for law firms, companies and agencies
Electronic discovery supports litigation, dispute resolution, regulatory inquiries and investigations. What you need from it depends on which side of the matter you sit.
Corporate clients
When a company is sued or investigated, the evidence sits on its own servers, cloud accounts and laptops. We work with your counsel and your IT team to locate that data and keep it intact.
Regulatory bodies
Regulatory inquiries involve large volumes of electronic records. Organized collection and a clear production format keep the exchange orderly for everyone involved.
Government agencies
Cities, counties and agencies face discovery like any other party, and their data is spread across email, file shares and department systems. We already support local government with networks, datacenters and cybersecurity.
The stages of the eDiscovery process
The usual sequence is identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis and production. Real matters loop back when new people or data sources come to light.
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Identification
Counsel and IT work out who may hold relevant data and where it sits: mailboxes, file shares, cloud accounts, phones and backups. A simple data map keeps the scope honest.
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Preservation
A legal hold tells people to keep what they have, and automatic deletion is switched off. Data lost after a duty to preserve begins can lead to court sanctions.
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Collection
Data is copied from its source in a way that leaves the original unchanged and records who handled it, so its authenticity can be shown later.
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Processing
Files are converted to a searchable form, duplicates are removed and the set is filtered by date, person or keyword. An early case assessment here can cut the volume that needs reading.
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Review and analysis
Lawyers read the documents for relevance, privilege and confidentiality. Search, tagging and analysis show who said what, and when, and what the matter really turns on.
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Production
Documents that must be shared are delivered in the agreed format with an index, and each step is documented in case it is questioned.
What affects how long eDiscovery takes
No two matters run to the same schedule. These five things set the pace and the cost more than anything else.
How much data there is
More people and more devices mean more to collect, process and read. Filtering early is the most effective way to keep volume, and cost, down.
Where the data sits
Current email and cloud accounts are usually quick to reach. Old backups, retired systems and personal phones take longer.
How well records are kept
Clear retention rules and documented systems speed up identification. Gaps, duplicates and unmanaged devices slow it down.
How the review is run
Search terms, tagging and technology-assisted review, including predictive coding and AI tools, decide how many documents a person has to read.
Court and regulator deadlines
The schedule sets the pace. Preservation starts straight away, and production dates are fixed around the discovery plan.
How SNATEK supports eDiscovery
SNATEK provides eDiscovery and litigation support services to law firms, corporate clients, regulatory bodies and government agencies involved in litigation, dispute resolution, regulatory inquiries and investigations. We operate internationally.
We are an IT firm first, and that matters because most of the work starts with systems: where the data lives, who can change it and how long it is kept. Our work in managed IT services, backup and recovery and cybersecurity means we know where email, files and backups sit on the networks we run, and how to keep confidential data protected while it is collected and shared.
- Help locating email, file shares, cloud accounts and backups
- Help pausing auto-delete rules and backup rotation when a legal hold is issued
- Access to case data limited and logged
- One point of contact for lawyers, IT staff and vendors
Based in Cooper City, working internationally
Our office is in Cooper City, Broward County, and we work with organizations from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach County. Our eDiscovery work is not limited to South Florida.
eDiscovery FAQ
What is eDiscovery?
eDiscovery, or electronic discovery, is the part of a legal matter where each side finds, preserves, collects, reviews and exchanges electronically stored information that may be relevant. It applies to lawsuits, regulatory inquiries and internal investigations, and it covers email, documents, messages, databases and any other digital record.
What is ESI?
ESI stands for electronically stored information. It means any information created, stored or sent in digital form: email, word-processing files, spreadsheets, chat and text messages, voicemail, databases, social media posts, photos, system logs and backups. It also includes metadata, such as dates and authors, which can matter as much as the content.
What are the stages of eDiscovery?
Most teams work through identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis and production. In practice the stages overlap and loop back: a new person or data source can send the team back to collection. The Electronic Discovery Reference Model, known as EDRM, is the common framework for describing them.
What does eDiscovery for law firms involve?
Attorneys decide what is relevant, privileged and responsive. The technical team makes sure the data is found, kept intact, processed and delivered in a form the review team can use. Many firms bring in a provider when volume, deadlines or technology go beyond what they can run in house.
How long does eDiscovery take?
It depends on how much data there is, how many people and systems are involved, how well the records are kept and what the court schedule requires. Preservation should begin as soon as a matter is foreseeable. Processing and review usually take the longest, and filtering data early shortens both.
What does eDiscovery cost?
Cost follows the same factors as the timeline: how much data there is, how many sources it comes from, how much needs a person to read it and how tight the deadlines are. The best way to control it is to reduce volume early, by collecting narrowly, removing duplicates and filtering before the review begins.
What is eDiscovery software?
eDiscovery software, also called an eDiscovery platform, is the tooling that processes, searches and reviews ESI and exports the production set. It removes duplicates, indexes text and lets reviewers tag documents. Some tools are built into the systems that hold the data: Microsoft 365, for example, includes search and legal hold tools for the mailboxes and files inside it.
How do you choose an eDiscovery vendor?
Ask which stages the vendor handles itself and which it passes to partners, how it documents who handled the data, how it protects confidential material, how fees are structured and who your day-to-day contact will be. A vendor should be able to answer each of those in plain terms before work begins.
What is the difference between eDiscovery and digital forensics?
eDiscovery finds and exchanges relevant information for a legal matter, usually at scale. Digital forensics examines devices and data to establish what happened, and can include recovering deleted files or tracing how a system was used. Some matters need only eDiscovery; others need both.
How should confidential data be protected during eDiscovery?
Treat case data as sensitive from collection onward. Limit who can open it, encrypt it in transit and at rest, keep an access log and move it through secure transfer rather than email attachments or loose drives. Privileged material needs the most care.
What should we do if we expect a lawsuit or an investigation?
Contact your attorney first. Then act quickly to stop routine deletion: pause auto-delete rules, hold device replacements and backup rotation for the people involved, and tell staff in writing to keep relevant material. Your IT team or provider can put those steps in place.
Related services
Talk to us about your matter
Tell us what the matter involves and where the data sits. We will explain the next step in plain terms and who needs to be involved.
Email usinfo@snatek.com
Visit us
11011 Sheridan Street, Suite 303 & 304
Cooper City, FL 33026
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