postip (postip) wrote, @ 2012-12-10 16:47:00 |
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The world of electronic discovery is growing quickly. It is expected to reach a much larger market share within the next five years.
With introduction of the digital age, physical correspondence between people, offices, departments within an office, and pretty much any organization has reduced significantly. Emailing, texting, instant messaging and posts on blogs and the myriad types of social media have all but replaced the courier and mail carrier, with only a digitally represented inbox or outbox found in most offices. While official records must still be produced on paper as they require a photo and signature, they can be easily replicated as many times as needed or desired and distributed via the internet to any location across the planet. The legal process of discovery, therefore has taken a turn into one of the fastest growing industries in America, electronic discovery or e-discovery. Discovery used to require sifting through giant reams of paper records, memos, letters, ID's, files and other correspondence to be used as evidence in litigation. However, with the landscape having changed so drastically towards electronic storage and record keeping, the process has had to adapt and become more technical. This requirement and demand for technicians knowledgeable in the process is leading to an upswing in employment opportunities and a boom in business.
In the United States, studies performed by Transparency Market Research “eDiscovery Market – Global Scenario, Trends, Industry Analysis, Size, Share and Forecast, 2010 – 2017 ,” the global ediscovery is expected to have risen at a compound annual growth rate of 15.4% from USD 3.6 billion in 2010 reaching an astonishing USD 9.9 billion in 2017. This growth takes into account both the world of electronic discovery software sales to companies as well as ediscovery services that companies and legal firms hire in order to process electronically stored information or ESI. It is plainly obvious that within the next few years, the e-discovery market should break the USD 10 billion mark in the market share.
The growth in the industry could also include both sides of the electronic discovery training process as individuals seek to take advantage by going to school. There are many schools, online courses, certificate programs, seminars and more that provide classes for paralegals to be properly trained in ediscovery. These can be taken advantage of by firms looking to bring the electronic discovery process in house instead of outsourcing to an existing company. It can also be utilized by those looking to get a job in one of these companies.
No matter which side of the e-discovery market people are choosing to enter the industry on, it is clear that the demand will only get greater. The increasing global dependance on electronic information storage means that there will always be a need for people who know the very stringent laws and regulations involved in storing, recovering, assessing, producing and processing data. Since the field is so young, there is a great deal of interest by firms to know the ins and outs involved because the electronic discovery process is heavily audited all along the way. The staggering amount of ways that data can be stored, replicated and shared makes it vital for the researchers to be extremely knowledgeable about the subject and wages will therefore likely be high.