E-discovery, referring to the process of discovery in civil litigation carried out in electronic format, requires litigants to provide each other’s relevant information and records along with all other evidence related to the case. (image: Kobiz Media / Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Sep. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Samjong KPMG, a general accounting, finance and management advisory firm in Korea, targets to enter the lawsuit market armed with professionals for electronic discovery, or e-discovery.
E-discovery, referring to the process of discovery in civil litigation carried out in electronic format, requires litigants to provide each other’s relevant information and records along with all other evidence related to the case. If not, a party could be suspected of destructing evidence, leading the party to lose the case.
E-discovery becomes important because a party defeated will be disrupted to do business in the U.S., needless to say that the party has to compensate for the cost. The problem is that, however, e-discovery is not established by Korean law, causing Korean enterprises to lose lawsuits.
A Korean company recently lost a patent suit, getting a verdict to compensate the plaintiff in the U.S. for US$599.5 million based on the e-discovery rule by the U.S. court since the corporation was suspected of having destroyed the evidence by deleting e-mails related to the case.
According to the Korea Intellectual Property Association, the number of lawsuits filed by non-practicing entities, also known as patent trolls, increased by five folds annually. Not only conglomerates but also small and medium enterprises in Korea could be in danger of litigation by patent trolls on account of lack of understanding of and preparation for e-discovery.
The Korean advisory firm stressed that it would be helpful for Korean corporations to prepare before they have to act on costly and time-consuming cases. In order to conduct defensible discovery, in particular, enterprises had better partner with both attorneys as well as professional experts on a field related to the case.
“E-discovery has increasingly been a global process, amounting to 30 percent of a total of global lawsuits,” Wi Seung-hun, vice president and director of e-discovery in Samjong KPMG, said. “Therefore, the cost from a defeated lawsuit would be incalculable if one did not prepare the e-discovery thoroughly,” he added.
By Veronica Huh (veronicah@koreabizwire.com)
