Mobile Devices

While requests for email communications and collections from hard drives and networks are standard in today’s litigation, a party’s text messages, and collections from mobile devices are oftentimes overlooked. A narrowly tailored motion to compel forensic exam can be a valuable discovery tool to analyze the data on a party’s mobile phone. This blog analyzes the factors that led a court in the Northern District of Illinois to order the forensic imaging and collection of a party's mobile phone.

Even when the need to preserve mobile data is clear, for clients who are not technical experts or who do not have technical experts on staff, how to go about actually preserving that data may not be so obvious. As legal professionals, it is important that we understand how to help our clients preserve mobile data and what pitfalls they may encounter.

Mobile devices are an absolute necessity in our everyday life. When it comes to litigation (or potential litigation), our beloved devices are usually subject to discovery as they may contain information that is relevant to proving or disproving a case. As a result, when developing a data collection strategy, mobile devices must be considered. Mobile devices may now be as valuable as the more typical sources of information, namely personal computers and network locations, and with this newly-recognized discovery relevance comes a potential for trouble.

There was a time when the only data you needed to collect in response to a discovery request was corporate email. Fast forward to present day. Employees are conducting business with smartphones, via social media and with the assistance of wearable technology. As a result, responding to e-discovery requests has become increasingly challenging.