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How Metadata Changed the Outcome of a Complex Employment Case

By Victor Vital

By definition, metadata is data about data. For computer files, it includes file name, file type, date last opened, date last edited and more. In addition to that kind of file information, which most people can see, there are many more metadata fields that are hidden to typical users. When a file is created or revised, details may be embedded about who created or changed the document, when, on what computer, at what company, what was changed and more. This information can be valuable for a court case, and it goes beyond standard electronic discovery data collection: it must be gathered and analyzed by a digital forensics specialist.

My firm recently represented a company in a complex employment case with non-compete covenants and trade secrets at stake. Although we have extracted metadata in-house in the past, for this case we needed to be absolutely certain the work was done in a forensically sound manner so that we could use it during the trial. We used DSi, an e-discovery and digital forensics company that uses a combination of proprietary and leveraged technology to cover the entire electronic evidence lifecycle, to forensically collect and investigate the digital files for the case because they are this client's preferred national e-discovery vendor.

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