Electronic Discovery and Evidence

Insufficient E-Mail Notice to Employees

(6-25-04) E-mail notification of change to employment policy insufficient "A federal court in Massachusetts has just ruled that an employer's e-mail notification to employees about a new and mandatory arbitration policy was not sufficient notice to be binding. As more and more communications are electronic, the reasoning of this particular court decision could have a fairly far-reaching impact."

Comment: Very important electronic discovery case. This provides another defense to employees contending they did not receive proper notice of "important" employment matters.

The Art of Key Word Searching

The Art of Key Word Searching
Technical White Paper, October 17, 2003, Christopher L. T. Brown, CISSP
Abstract
"Keyword searching in computer forensics can make or break an investigation. Choosing the wrong search terms may cause you to miss vital evidence, or may return so many hits that you spend hours looking for a needle in a haystack to find any real evidence. Given the size of today’s computer disks, each search can take many hours, causing delays and frustration unless your search terms are well chosen. This paper is intended to show how a thoughtful approach to keyword selection along with a few simple operators will often net the desired results quickly and with fewer CPU cycles."

Voice Mail - Discovery

Voice Mail Computer Files

1. Obtain a copy of the voice mail electronic file from the phone service provider.

2. If that is not available, have an investigator access the voice mail from any phone that has a recording device - record the messages including the date, time, from, etc. If you are obtaining the information from a cell phone determine if the phone has a earphone jack. If so then generally a male to male telephone cable will enable you to connect the phone to a recording device or directly into a computer storage device. To support authentication, "write protect" the tape or store on a CD-ROM to prevent erasure or other allegations invloving chain of custody issues.