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In our recent webinar on modern attachments in eDiscovery, one thing became abundantly clear: hyperlinked content represents a significant blind spot in most legal teams' evidence collection processes. When you send an email with a hyperlink to a Google Drive document instead of attaching the file directly, you're creating what we call a "modern attachment" – and these are fundamentally changing how discovery must work.
As Julia Helmer explained during our webinar, modern attachments promote greater collaboration by allowing teams to work on a single document, solve version control issues, reduce data footprints, and enhance security. However, these benefits create significant challenges for eDiscovery:
Brian Roberts highlighted several key cases that demonstrate how courts are approaching modern attachments:
The takeaway is clear: courts are not taking a one-size-fits-all approach. When protocols include hyperlinks, courts will enforce these requirements. When they don't, and feasibility is an issue, courts generally won't impose the burden on defendants.
That's why we developed LinkSync, our solution that reconnects these broken evidence chains. LinkSync:
During the webinar demonstration, we showed how LinkSync enables seamless navigation from an email with a modern attachment directly to the linked document – a capability that would otherwise require manual tracking and linking.
Real-World Application
As shown in our demo, LinkSync proves invaluable when preparing for depositions. In our example, we searched for the phrase "OK, I admit it" and discovered an email containing that phrase along with a hyperlink to a spreadsheet. Without LinkSync, connecting these pieces would be challenging. But with our solution, we could simply click on the attachment link to review the related document.
LinkSync also allows users to:
Julia shared that while our current focus is on Google Vault and Google Workspace, our roadmap includes:
As ESI protocols are typically drafted at the start of a project, it's critical to address modern attachments early. You have two strategic options:
Don't wait until you're facing production challenges. Watch our full webinar recording to see LinkSync in action and learn how to develop a defensible approach to modern attachments in your eDiscovery process.
From her 30 years of litigation experience in the industry, along with being a Relativity Certified Master and Relativity Certified Administrator, Tracey’s expertise expands through project management, IT, and administration. She has designed custom templates, workflows, quality control protocols and proprietary project management & reporting tools used in over 600 active litigation matters. Tracey blends a pragmatic, business-oriented approach to eDiscovery process management with a deep understanding of advanced technology offerings and implementation considerations.
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