In my last blog I talked about the happenings of the Zondo commission into State Capture here in South Africa and the fact that it was heavily reliant on eDiscovery technology. Since then, the Commission has applied for an extension to the end of 2020 which appears to be a formality. This will be terrific news and the licences of the eDiscovery technology will be extended to aid the investigations. Former President Zuma appears to be playing the “sick card” to avoid attending the Commission again as well as the proceedings in the High Court at Pietermaritzburg in connection with corruption over arms deals. Meanwhile, there is a photograph which allegedly proves he was fit and well but there is some doubt as to when it was taken and some lawyers are saying it can only be verified if there is a witness to the event who could confirm the date. This makes me angry because if they were using the metadata from the original digital photograph it would be incontrovertible evidence of the time and date of the photograph. Still on the issue of corruption there is a very worrying matter in SA, when a week ago the offices of the Masters of the High Court in SA were shut down pending an investigation by the SIU into allegations of misconduct and corruption. I can only hope that the SIU will follow in the footsteps of the Zondo Commission and use eDiscovery technology to aid this important investigation. We have also seen that POPIA may be implemented within the next few months after a long wait since the Act was passed in 2013. This is long overdue but welcome news and eDiscovery has a strong link with Data Protection and Privacy as it will help to stem the tide of data leaving this jurisdiction. Whilst I reported that the Rules Board of the DoJ claim to be working on eDiscovery , little has happened practically and I called upon interested parties and bodies to lobby the Rules Board instead of just me. It is 5 years now since I started this quest and I want to see it happen before I finally decide to hang up my “eDiscovery in SA baton”. What we have seen from the DoJ is a Practice Directive concerning the implementation of the Caselines case management system in the High Court in Gauteng. This is also great news and some are saying that is the beginning of the era of e-litigation in SA. However, I must make it absolutely clear that whilst I welcome and applaud this initiative it is in effect e-filing and nothing at all to do with eDiscovery. So what else has been and is happening here in SA which prompts my post? In December 2019 the local chapter of ACEDS organised a seminar on eDiscovery in Johannesburg which was very well attended and received. I was thrilled to be interviewed by my friend Rian Hancock and included in the Africa Legal newsletter . Still on a personal front, I was truly honoured and humbled to receive out of the blue from Expedito an award of best eDiscovery blog Now, as to genuine eDiscovery activity in SA, I mentioned in a recent post that I am engaged by a Johannesburg law firm on a large matter and this is a very interesting one. It is not one in which I was able to advise the utilisation of a litigation database solution for a number of reasons. Largely, because discovery has already taken place and what is evidence is a huge number of very old documents which have been scanned to PDF. There are in excess of 50 custodians and witness statements are in the process of being prepared for each whereby they will refer to some of the documents in the dataset. The task is to be able to find those documents quickly and also to prepare Trial Bundles. As I have often mentioned experience of eDiscovery means that it is not always putting everything into a solution being the best method of dealing with a problem. In this case I have advised an inexpensive solution of hyperlinking the relevant documents to each witness statement and back links to the statements. Once the documents are thereby linked and obviously reduced, then I have also advised the use of Trial presentation software for use at the Trial. My recommendation is Trial Director 360 by Ipro in Phoenix USA, which is a company I have worked with so much for 20 years. My law firm clients were delighted with the advice and recommendations and the whole matter is now being discussed with the end client and Counsel. The point is that having a great deal of eDiscovery experience allows for thinking laterally at times and not just the “yes” or “no” to a database solution. Whilst I must quell my excitement at the moment I must say that if they opt to use Trial Director 360 it will be the first ever case in SA where Trail Presentation software will have been used…….. watch this space! Another interesting case in SA in which eDiscovery technology is being used has come to my attention. Almost 5 years ago I met a litigation Attorney in Cape Town along with my wife, Waseema Harrison and all of us have stayed in touch ever since. He has always been interested in eDiscovery technology and it was always going to be about waiting for an appropriate case. Well, that has happened and whilst there is no need for my services I am so happy that he is involved in a current case in Cape Town and is using eDiscovery technology as I write. The main point here is that relationships, education, awareness and keeping abreast of what is happening pays dividends. I always knew that this Attorney would use the technology once he had an appropriate case and his client is delighted. Now, a word about the fantastic annual Legal technology conference in New York - LegalTech or Legal Week as they call it now. When I was in the UK I went to 12 consecutive LegalTech’s and loved every one. Global networking, seeing new software solutions, meeting old and new friends and contacts, listening to excellent keynote addresses from the great and the good of the global eDiscovery world and all crammed into just 4 days…and nights! I was delighted to see SA represented this year, so well done to the good people of Lextrado/Cyanre from Johannesburg . When I went I never failed to either buy new software or win a new case which more than paid for my trip and I sincerely hope that Lextrado/Cyanre can say the same thing. Overall, therefore SA is definitely showing great signs of forward movement on the eDiscovery road in 2020 and, for sure it is not before time as the long delay in acceptance and use concerns me greatly. I see global eDiscovery news and comments daily and whilst the rest of the world is successfully grappling with greater and greater use of data analytics and even “ephemeral messaging” for discovery, here in SA, the few who are using eDiscovery are relying upon keyword searching. As I have said many times, “Don’t wait for the Rules to change, electronic data is here right now and has been for years”.