eDiscovery, in Simple Terms
eDiscovery, short for electronic discovery, is the process of identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing, and producing electronically stored information that may be relevant to a lawsuit, investigation, subpoena, regulatory matter, or other legal proceeding. The information involved is commonly called ESI, or electronically stored information. [1]
Put more simply: eDiscovery is how legal teams find and manage digital evidence. Decades ago, discovery might have centered on boxes of paper. Today, relevant evidence can be scattered across email accounts, phones, laptops, cloud platforms, shared drives, databases, messaging applications, photographs, spreadsheets, and other digital systems.
What Does ESI Mean?
ESI stands for electronically stored information. It is a broad concept used in modern discovery to describe information stored electronically. Hawaiʻi Rule of Civil Procedure 26 expressly recognizes electronically stored information as a category of discoverable material, alongside documents and tangible things. [2]
Depending on the matter, ESI may include:
• Emails and attachments
• Text messages and chat messages
• Microsoft Teams, Slack, or similar collaboration data
• Word documents, PDFs, and presentations
• Spreadsheets and databases
• Photographs, videos, and audio files
• Cloud-stored files and shared-drive content
• Website and social-media content
• Calendar records
• Device and system data
• Metadata associated with electronic files
Not every piece of digital information is automatically discoverable. What must be preserved, reviewed, or produced depends on the legal issues, applicable rules, court orders, agreements between the parties, relevance, privilege, accessibility, burden, and other considerations.
Why Is eDiscovery Important?
Most organizations create enormous amounts of digital information during ordinary business. When litigation or an investigation arises, potentially relevant facts may exist across thousands—or millions—of electronic records. eDiscovery provides a structured way to narrow that universe of data into information that can actually be evaluated and, when appropriate, produced.
In Hawaiʻi civil litigation, Rule 26 specifically addresses discovery of ESI. It also recognizes that some electronically stored information may be not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or expense. When that issue is disputed, the rule establishes a process for the court to evaluate accessibility and good cause. [2]
How Does the eDiscovery Process Work?
A widely used framework for understanding eDiscovery is the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). EDRM describes the process conceptually rather than as a rigid checklist: legal teams may move back and forth between phases as they learn more about the matter and the data. [1]
In September 2026, EDRM released EDRM 2.0, an updated version of the model reflecting current eDiscovery practice. The model emphasizes early data scoping, continuous analysis, modern acquisition workflows, review, production, and defensible disposition after data is no longer needed. [3]
Identification: Finding Where Relevant Information May Exist
Identification means determining the potential sources and scope of relevant ESI and documents. A legal team may need to determine who the important people-or custodians-are, which devices or systems they used, what date ranges matter, and where potentially relevant information is stored. [1]
Preservation: Protecting Potential Evidence
Once information is identified as potentially relevant, it may need to be preserved so that it is not altered or destroyed. Preservation can involve suspending ordinary deletion practices for relevant information and issuing legal-hold instructions to people responsible for potentially relevant data. [1]
Collection: Gathering the Data
Collection is the retrieval of potentially relevant ESI and documents for use in the eDiscovery process. A defensible collection seeks to gather the necessary information while maintaining its integrity and useful characteristics. [1]
Processing: Making Large Data Sets Reviewable
Raw electronic data is not always ready for attorney review. Processing can normalize and convert information into usable forms, extract text and metadata, identify file types, and reduce unnecessary volume. Duplicate copies may also be identified so reviewers do not repeatedly review the same material. [1]
Review: Determining What Matters
During document review, attorneys and legal professionals evaluate documents and ESI for issues such as relevance, responsiveness, privilege, confidentiality, privacy, and significance to the matter. Review is often one of the most resource-intensive portions of eDiscovery. [1]
Analysis: Understanding the Evidence
Analysis occurs throughout the modern eDiscovery lifecycle. Teams may examine people, dates, communications, concepts, patterns, timelines, and relationships in the data to better understand what happened and to refine later work. [1]
Production: Delivering Responsive Information
Production is the delivery of discoverable ESI or documents to another party or requesting authority in an agreed, ordered, or otherwise appropriate format. Production may involve native files, searchable images, extracted text, metadata, or other formats depending on the matter. [1]
Presentation: Using Electronic Evidence
Relevant ESI may ultimately be used in depositions, hearings, motions, arbitration, mediation, or trial. The presentation stage focuses on displaying and using electronic evidence effectively in the legal proceeding. [1]
Disposition: What Happens to the Data Afterward
EDRM 2.0 expressly includes disposition as a core phase. After the legal or business need for information ends, organizations may need a defensible process for retaining, returning, transferring, or deleting data in accordance with applicable obligations. [1]
What Is a Legal Hold?
A legal hold is a process used to preserve potentially relevant information when litigation or another legal obligation requires it. In practice, organizations may notify relevant custodians, identify data sources, suspend applicable deletion processes, and track compliance. Preservation is a central component of the EDRM framework. [1]
What Is Metadata, and Why Can It Matter?
Metadata is information about an electronic file or record. Depending on the system and file type, metadata can include information such as the author, creation or modification dates, file name, email sender and recipients, or other system-generated properties. In eDiscovery, metadata can help legal teams organize, search, authenticate, understand, and produce electronic records. Whether particular metadata must be preserved or produced depends on the applicable discovery requirements and the circumstances of the case.
What Happens During Document Review?
Document review is the stage in which legal professionals examine potentially relevant information and make decisions about it. Reviewers may code documents for responsiveness, legal issues, privilege, confidentiality, privacy, key facts, or other categories defined for the matter. [1]
Modern review platforms can also provide search, filtering, email threading, duplicate detection, analytics, and other tools that help teams work through large data sets more efficiently. Technology can assist the review process, but the legal standards governing what must be preserved, withheld, or produced remain central.
What Is Technology-Assisted Review (TAR)?
Technology-assisted review, often shortened to TAR, refers broadly to technology-assisted methods used to help prioritize, classify, or review documents. Depending on the workflow, analytics and machine-learning tools can help legal teams identify potentially important material within very large document populations. TAR does not mean that every eDiscovery matter is handled automatically; technology is used within a broader legal and quality-control process.
eDiscovery in Hawaiʻi
Electronic discovery is not only a federal-court concept. The Hawaiʻi Rules of Civil Procedure expressly address electronically stored information. HRCP Rule 26 permits discovery concerning ESI within the rule’s scope and addresses ESI that may not be reasonably accessible because of undue burden or expense. Rule 26(f) also requires applicable discovery plans to address issues concerning the disclosure, discovery, and preservation of ESI, including the form in which it should be produced. [2]
Hawaiʻi’s civil rules were amended years ago to expressly incorporate electronically stored information into several discovery rules, reflecting the reality that evidence is increasingly digital. [4]
eDiscovery vs. Traditional Discovery: What Is the Difference?
Discovery is the broader legal process through which parties obtain information relevant to a case. eDiscovery is the part of that process focused on electronic information. A deposition, for example, is discovery but is not itself eDiscovery. Collecting and reviewing a custodian’s email account, by contrast, is a classic eDiscovery task.
Who Works on eDiscovery?
Depending on the size and complexity of a matter, eDiscovery can involve attorneys, litigation-support professionals, eDiscovery analysts, paralegals, document reviewers, forensic specialists, information-technology teams, records professionals, cybersecurity personnel, consultants, and software providers. The work sits at the intersection of law, technology, data management, and litigation strategy.
Common eDiscovery Challenges
Data volume
Modern organizations can generate enormous amounts of data, making careful scoping and filtering important.
Multiple data sources
Relevant information may be spread across phones, laptops, email, cloud applications, collaboration platforms, servers, and third-party systems.
Preservation
Organizations must consider how potentially relevant information will be protected from inappropriate alteration or destruction.
Privilege and confidentiality
Legal teams must identify protected information and manage confidential or sensitive material appropriately.
Cost and proportionality
Collecting and reviewing everything can be impractical. Discovery rules and workflows therefore address burden, expense, accessibility, and appropriate limits.
Changing technology
New communication platforms, cloud systems, analytics, artificial intelligence, and data types continually change how potentially relevant information is created and reviewed.
A Simple eDiscovery Example
Imagine a company is sued over a disputed business agreement. The relevant evidence may not exist in a single contract file. Important information could be contained in emails between employees, text messages discussing negotiations, earlier versions of the agreement stored in the cloud, spreadsheets tracking payments, calendar invitations, and attachments exchanged with the other party. The eDiscovery process helps the legal team determine where that information exists, preserve it, collect it, make it searchable, review it for relevance and privilege, and produce responsive material in the required format.
Why Good eDiscovery Practices Matter
Effective eDiscovery is ultimately about handling electronic evidence in a way that is organized, defensible, efficient, and consistent with applicable legal obligations. Good practices can help legal teams understand the facts earlier, reduce unnecessary data, protect privileged information, respond to discovery obligations, and prepare electronic evidence for use throughout a case.
Frequently Asked Questions About eDiscovery
Is eDiscovery only for lawsuits?
No. eDiscovery techniques may also be used in investigations, subpoenas, regulatory matters, arbitration, internal investigations, and other matters involving electronic evidence.
Is every email discoverable?
No. Whether an email is discoverable depends on the scope of the matter, relevance, privilege, applicable rules and orders, accessibility, and other legal considerations.
Can text messages be part of eDiscovery?
Yes. Text and messaging data can be relevant ESI when it falls within the scope of a legal matter.
Does eDiscovery mean lawyers read every file manually?
Not necessarily. Search, filtering, deduplication, analytics, and technology-assisted workflows can reduce and organize data before and during review.
What is eDiscovery software?
eDiscovery software is technology used to manage one or more parts of the electronic discovery lifecycle, such as processing, searching, reviewing, coding, analyzing, and producing electronic documents.
What is the difference between eDiscovery and digital forensics?
The fields overlap, but they are not identical. eDiscovery generally focuses on managing information for legal discovery and production, while digital forensics often focuses on technically examining devices or systems to recover, preserve, or investigate digital evidence.
Does Hawaiʻi have rules for eDiscovery?
Yes. The Hawaiʻi Rules of Civil Procedure expressly address electronically stored information in civil discovery, including its accessibility, preservation, discovery, and production. [2]
Dictionary of Key eDiscovery Terms
eDiscovery / electronic discovery: The process of identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing, producing, and using electronic information in connection with a legal matter.
ESI: Electronically stored information: information maintained in electronic form.
Custodian: A person or entity associated with, responsible for, or possessing a source of potentially relevant information.
Data source: A location or system containing information, such as an email account, phone, laptop, cloud drive, database, or collaboration platform.
Identification: Determining the scope of a matter and locating potentially relevant ESI and document sources.
Preservation: Protecting potentially relevant information against inappropriate alteration or destruction.
Legal hold: A process used to communicate and implement preservation obligations for potentially relevant information.
Collection: Retrieving potentially relevant ESI and documents for further eDiscovery work.
Processing: Preparing collected electronic information for review and analysis, including normalization and other data-handling steps.
Deduplication: Identifying duplicate copies of electronic records so unnecessary repetition can be reduced during review.
Metadata: Data describing characteristics or context of another electronic record, such as certain dates, authorship, file properties, or email-routing information.
Document review: Evaluating documents or ESI for relevance, responsiveness, privilege, confidentiality, privacy, issues, or other matter-specific criteria.
Responsive: A term commonly used for information that falls within the scope of a discovery request or other request for information.
Privilege: A legal protection that can shield qualifying communications or information from disclosure.
Privilege review: The process of identifying potentially privileged material before production.
Production: Delivering discoverable information in an agreed, ordered, or otherwise appropriate format.
Native file: An electronic file in its original or application-created format, such as an .xlsx spreadsheet or .docx document.
Load file: A structured file used to transfer document data and metadata into or between litigation-support or review systems.
TAR: Technology-assisted review: technology-supported methods for prioritizing or classifying documents during review.
Analytics: Technology and methods used to examine patterns, relationships, concepts, communications, and other characteristics within data.
Disposition: A defensible process for retaining, deleting, returning, or transferring data after its legal or business use concludes.
EDRM: Electronic Discovery Reference Model, a widely used conceptual framework for understanding the eDiscovery lifecycle.
Sources and Further Reading
1. EDRM — Current Electronic Discovery Reference Model 2.0 (2026)
2. Hawaiʻi State Judiciary — Hawaiʻi Rules of Civil Procedure, including Rule 26
3. EDRM — EDRM 2.0 Project and 2026 update
4. Hawaiʻi Supreme Court — 2014 Order Amending HRCP Rules 26, 30, 33, 34, 37, and 45 to address ESI
5. Hawaiʻi State Judiciary — Current Hawaiʻi Rules of Court
6. U.S. Courts — Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Legal Disclaimer
This article is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not legal advice. eDiscovery obligations vary depending on the jurisdiction, type of proceeding, facts, court orders, agreements between the parties, and applicable rules. Court rules and technology also change over time. Readers should review current governing authorities and consult qualified counsel regarding a specific legal matter.