Category: Articles, Computer/Internet, Marketing, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts The Importance of Online Reputation Management (ORM) for Legal Professionals Check out our archived webinars in the Knowledge Center! TASA ID: 11604 Reputation, by its very definition is a nebulous, intangible and complex concept. Trust, along with an excellent reputation as a legal resource, cannot be directly measured like income and expenses. An attorney’s reputation and credibility matter more today than ever before. Clients prefer to retain attorneys and firms with strong and positive reputations. The internet democratizes information and increased competition from both the attorney next door and cost-effective digital legal platforms, such as LegalZoom, Rocket Lawyer and Nolo. Read more
Category: Articles, Computer/Internet, Crime Investigation, Law Enforcement & Corrections, Record Fraud, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts Communications are Essential as a Force Multiplier in Fraud Investigations TASA ID: 8635 While most news broadcasts lead with headlines of violent crime and terrorist acts; white collar crimes, like scams and frauds present a serious problem. According to the FBI, white collar crime costs the United States over $300 billion a year. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, who published the 2016 “Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse” paint a far graver picture; estimating that the typical organization loses 5% of its revenues each year to fraud. Based on the 2015 Commerce Department estimates; the U.S. gross domestic product of $17.9 trillion, American businesses lost about $895 billion to fraud in 2016. Read more
Category: Articles, Computer/Internet, e-Discovery, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts The Flaws of Using Search Methods in E-discovery Whitepaper TASA ID: 1793 Introduction The document review industry has used search methods for various purposes. The use of search methods have been validated by using flawed validation methods. I could show the validation methods that have been used are flawed due to the interference of networked-based distributed review models on performance, reviewer qualification mismatches, using tag counts in validation methods, and the misuse of statistical methods. Statistical methods, which always involve using small probability theory to address low-frequency high-risk problems, are sufficient to make most search results invalid. The flaw in using statistical methods in litigation is similar to using the small probability theory to address risks in the aviation industry which would lead to hull losses. I conduct a brief analysis of two well known key search methods which have been used widely to generate document pools for human review. Read more
Category: Articles, Computer/Internet, e-Discovery, Resources for Attorneys Information: The Next Natural Resource TASA ID: 1335 ABSTRACTI’ve spent my career looking at how large quantities of complex information affects every part of our lives and this is the most exciting time to be doing that. Information affects finances. Information affects your health. It affects the life choices presented to you. It cannot be overstated how important the accumulation of enormous sums of detailed data about all of us and every aspect of business is.Ten years ago, who would have imagined that so much of the planet would be photographed, and those photographs made widely available, as in Google Earth? Or, who would have imagined that we would be so willing to share large amounts of personal information through public and quasi-public outlets like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare?How much data are we talking about? The earth generated about four zettabytes of digital data in 2013. IDC forecasts that we will generate 40 zettabytes (ZB) by 2020. Now, all that data isn’t used, but increasingly, more of it is. And it’s not just stored once. Data with value is branched off into numerous databases across multiple companies. In only the last few years, as much data has been generated as had previously ever existed. Read more
Category: Articles, Computer/Internet, Crime Investigation, Handwriting Examination, Medical & Healthcare, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts, Security, Toxicology “Who Wrote That Email?” Forensic Authorship Attribution and Stylometry TASA ID: 3949 Some cases hinge on the authorship of a document. Whether we want to know about the author of a defamatory email, the source of a ransom note, or the authenticity of a will, one of the most important pieces of evidence is the one that establishes who wrote it. Historically, most documents were handwritten and handwriting experts (today they go by the title “forensic document examiners”) could determine who wrote something from the slant of an f or the height of a t. Even with typewritten documents, they could notice a chipped p or an out-of-line c and identify the specific typewriter that created the document. Physical creation also produces physical variance. Read more
