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Editor Bio
Gregg Mayer is a journalist and lawyer with a keen interest in the rapidly evolving world of e-Discovery. Gregg has published numerous articles, including writing for law journals and the American Bar Association. Gregg served as editor-in-chief of the Mississippi Law Journal. Before practicing law, Gregg worked as a newspaper reporter for six years.
Following The Trails Of Metadata
Posted by Gregg Mayer on Thursday, February 21st, 2008
As discussed in an earlier post, metadata is the hidden stuff in electronically stored information (”ESI”), including email. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, metadata may have to be disclosed to the other side in litigation, although not always.
Once metadata is disclosed, lawyers often start looking for information to use. Sometimes lawyers start perusing another party’s metadata even if it is unclear whether the metadata was intended to be disclosed.
A recent article on law.com nicely explores the different aspects - and troubles - of metadata:
Metadata, often described as “data about data,” is electronically stored information that generally is not visible from the face of a document that has been printed out, or as first seen on a computer screen. Embedded in the software, metadata gives information about the creation or modification of the document — information which often is mundane but at other times, can be quite significant and perhaps even privileged.
By “mining” the metadata in a document, someone may be able to identify the document’s author, changes made during various stages of its preparation, comments made by others who reviewed the document and other documents embedded within the document.
Read the full article here.
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