October 15, 2008, 6:08 PM — PASADENA, Calif., October 15, 2008 – Guidance Software Inc. (NASDAQ: GUID), the World Leader in Digital Investigationsâ„¢, today announced EnCase® Legal Hold, a web-based litigation hold and tracking solution that is tightly integrated with EnCase® eDiscovery, the industry standard for the identification, search, collection, preservation and processing of electronically stored information (ESI). This integrated solution enables corporate legal departments not only to identify and notify custodians for legal preservation holds at the outset of litigation, but also to manage, track and report on the actual preservation, collection, and processing of ESI.
Applicable law requires litigants to preserve potentially relevant information when litigation can reasonably be anticipated. Many current litigation hold solutions, however, do not provide an integrated technical means to systematically collect and process data from custodians subject to litigation holds. Instead of an integrated solution, they merely send and track emails to custodians, often while promoting custodian self-collection, which has drawn harsh scrutiny from the courts and presents risks such as non-compliance, under- or over-collection, metadata alteration or spoliation, inadequate chain of custody documentation, authentication challenges and business disruption.
EnCase Legal Hold’s tight integration with EnCase eDiscovery makes it possible not only to notify and interview custodians, but also to track and report on the collection and processing of ESI performed with EnCase eDiscovery. Using a single case database, customers can issue litigation holds, interview custodians, monitor compliance with the holds and track the progress of collection and processing of potentially relevant ESI.
“All too often, companies rely on email notification solutions to address the duty to preserve relevant ESI,†said Victor Limongelli, President and CEO of Guidance Software. “Guidance Software developed EnCase Legal Hold so that organizations could address the duty to preserve relevant ESI in a manner that is systemized, repeatable and defensible. It gives counsel full control over the entire spectrum of the litigation hold process, and provides detailed reports, on a per-custodian or per-case basis, regarding the collection and processing of ESI.â€
EnCase Legal Hold will begin shipping in December 2008.
Guidance Software received the highest ranking (Top 5 Provider) in the eDiscovery Software Providers Category of Socha-Gelbmann's 2008 Electronic Discovery Survey. Earlier this year, Guidance Software also received the highest possible rating in Gartner's MarketScope for E-Discovery and Litigation Support Vendors, 2007. The Gartner report is available, compliments of Guidance Software at www.guidancesoftware.com.
About Guidance Software (GUID)
Guidance Software is recognized worldwide as the industry leader in digital investigative solutions. Its EnCase(r) platform provides the foundation for government, corporate and law enforcement organizations to conduct thorough, network-enabled, and court-validated computer investigations of any kind, such as responding to eDiscovery requests, conducting internal investigations, responding to regulatory inquiries or performing data and compliance auditing - all while maintaining the integrity of the data. There are more than 28,000 licensed users of the EnCase technology worldwide, and thousands attend Guidance Software's renowned training programs annually. Validated by numerous courts, corporate legal departments, government agencies and law enforcement organizations worldwide, EnCase has been honored with industry awards and recognition from eWEEK, SC Magazine, Network Computing, and the Socha-Gelbmann survey. For more information about Guidance Software, visit www.guidancesoftware.com.
