Looking forward to 2021: Current trends in litigation

COVID-19 will continue to have significant impacts on litigation proceedings and the associated data management and eDiscovery challenges.

Remote Working and Different Data Sources

• The emerging trend of agile, remote work environments was accelerated by COVID-19. The shift is here to stay with organisations heading toward a permanent "hybrid" model, where employees split time working from the office, home and other remote locations.
• The use of cloud-based collaboration and video-conferencing tools have become standard. Tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack were already in use, but their usage exploded during COVID-19. They are now the main form of communication and collaboration, and sharing and storing business related content and information, supplanting email as the dominant data type for businesses. Their use also spreads to collaborating and sharing documents with external business partners and clients.