Two very high profile legal cases (Paul Manafort and Ghislaine Maxwell) made the same mistake in their redactions. What happened and how can it be avoided?

One of the worst fears we have with the legal discovery process is mistakenly producing sensitive and/or privileged data.

Two very high profile legal cases (Paul Manafort in 2019 and Ghislaine Maxwell just days ago) did exactly that and they both made the same mistake, inadequate redactions. The redacted documents in both of these cases simply put a black box over the existing text and never actually removed the text from the sensitive document(s). This means that text underneath the black boxes, throughout the produced documents, could still be accessed and reviewed, for all to see.  This would have been fine if they then printed the documents and produced in hard copy (paper).  However most productions are now delivered in electronic format and this poses a set of challenges to attorneys.

The core issue, like we’ve seen in the two cases listed above, often stems from non-legal tools and software being leveraged in the electronic discovery (eDiscovery) process.  Often regular applications simply do not know or understand the special criteria needed for proper electronic discovery or legal document requirements.  These tools are made for everyday business (or even hobby), yet many law firms and attorneys utilize them.  There are many reasons for this including; accessibility, ease of use, and cost to name a few.  However it is very important the legal community understand the risks involved when using non-specialized applications in this manner.  Unfortunately the issue is not identified until it is too late, and the data is out in the wild for all to see.

Fortunately there is a simple fix.  Solutions like Indexed I/O are purposefully designed and built for the eDiscovery process.  Indexed I/O understands legal discovery and has put into place specific document handling protocols to insure sensitive data is not inadvertently made available in production data.

Users can easily select privileged and/or confidential information and redact it from their documents. Once a document is open in our viewer, click the redaction button in the top right to get started.  

Then simply click and drag a box around the content you want to redact.

Within the Indexed I/O user interface, all redactions are semi-transparent which allows for an easy review of the item without toggling or removing the redaction. 

Once you’re done, hit the save button to commit your changes. Here Indexed I/O takes its first step in ensuring the redacted information is protected from accidental copy, print, download, or export.  All redacted documents are immediately OCR’d to remove the redacted text in real time.  The system now has a new ‘clean’ version of the document and associated text, and the item is now available to safely download, print, or export.

Export Native Files For Redacted Items:
Items exported in (or with) their associated ‘original’ native file format, will have their original native file replaced by the safe PDF version.  This ensures no redacted data is produced via the original native file.

If a redacted item has a ‘parent’ item that is also getting exported (think email message with redacted attachment), the parent item will also have its native file replaced by a PDF version.  This step makes sure that the original email file (MSG containing the unredacted attachment) is not produced.

Even though the review interface shows you a transparent redaction and maintains the original text for easy search and reference, The system stores a ‘clean’ PDF version of the redacted item to be utilized in all print, download, and export processes.  This version DOES NOT contain the redacted text. 

Combining Indexed I/O’s ‘Personal Information’ detection with our document redaction tools, users can efficiently, and consistently handle privileged information.  These built in tools are specifically designed to assist the legal review and ensure your production is perfect.

We're always pushing forward at Indexed I/O and our promise is to always bring you outstanding, easy to use, eDiscovery technologies.

We are your Do-It-Yourself E-Discovery solution!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@indexed.io or call 888-804-0709.