Market Trends of Electronic Discovery Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Electronic Discovery Market according to our research experts:
Rising Adoption of e-Discovery Services by the Government Sector
Government departments across the world have recognized the value of electronic records for various investigations. Various institutions, such as The Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, have been insisting on the impotence of such electronic records.
Governments have various regulations to be checked, when it comes to the establishment of new companies, etc. The recent case of “Paradise papers” emphasizes the need for e-discovery in governmental institutes for finding various felonies committed, such as money laundering, tax frauds, etc.
Cases in the past faced by the US government, such as accusations against 19 defendants participating in a criminal conspiracy, have been side-tracked. This has been done by providing about 200 TB of data, out of which only 8 TB of data was relevant to the case. Even the 8 TB data was not in a relevant format to search. Such cases indicate the importance of e-discovery for governments.
Federal legal professionals are yet to use e-discovery extensively. It has been estimated that only 38% of them can show accurate, trustworthy information. Government professionals have less confidence in the e-discovery software. But, with the growing electronically stored information (ESI), this is bound to change.
North America Expected to Remain the Largest Market for Electronic Discovery Solutions
North America is the largest market for electronic discovery solutions in the world. Out of all the 50 states in the country, 49 states have already enacted e-discovery rules. Hawaii, being the youngest of all the states, has not yet appeared on the list and is making its efforts to establish e-discovery rules. California has most recently regulated e-discovery laws in the country. In 2009, after the California Code of Civil Procedure was amended by the Electronic Discovery Act to address the discovery of electronically stored information, further amendments took place even in 2012, which became effective in 2013.
The State of California, owing to the aforementioned factor, has the most updated laws on e-discovery. E-discovery solutions are put to work when situations, like lawsuits, internal investigation, mergers and acquisitions, and data breach events occur. In the case of the United States, lawsuits and data breach incidents prove to be the trigger in most of the cases.
According to the data from the Administrative Office of the US Courts, 2017, the US courts of appeals filings rose 10% from 2016. The bankruptcy appellate panels reported that filings rose by 1%, while the filings for the Federal Circuit rose by 11%. In the US district courts, filings of civil cases also rose by 6% in 2017, from 2016. This scenario, with highly penetrated electronic discovery laws in the country, is enabling the use of e-discovery solutions to mine the required data and present it to the court.
