EDD SNAFU - ROUND 2

LexisNexis Applied Discovery has responded to the Wednesday article about problems with e-discovery in the Enron case. Here's the company's response:

Dear Editor:

We would like to address a number of factual errors contained in an article published in the August 10, 2006 online issue of The American Lawyer.com, titled, “Software Glitch May Have Erased E-Mail Text in Enron Suits.” This story alleges that “a software bug may have erased text in emails produced for electronic document production being handled by Applied Discovery in the Enron civil suit."

In fact, the Microsoft Outlook 2003 bug in question does not erase anything.  The bug causes Outlook 2000 e-mails to appear blank on computers without a patch that Microsoft issued as part of its Office 2003 Service Pack 2 in September 2005. This bug affected what appears to be less than one-tenth of one percent of
e-mail documents.

To set the record straight:

1. No data was lost as a result of this bug. It did not erase anything but simply caused the text of e-mails to not be displayed.  The data is present and can be viewed by applying Microsoft’s patch to address the error.

2. In the Outlook 2000 e-mails affected by this bug the To, From, Subject Matter fields and attachments are 100 percent viewable.

3. Less than .01 percent of the email documents involved were affected.

4. Applied Discovery does not use Microsoft Outlook to search e-mail. Rather, Outlook is used to help display e-mails.

Applied Discovery has been working closely with Microsoft throughout this situation to address the needs and concerns of our customers and maintain the sanctity of our e-Discovery process. Microsoft has expressed confidence that this Outlook issue has been fully resolved. We encourage clients with lingering questions to contact us directly.

Sincerely,

Scott Nagel
Vice President, Managing Director
LexisNexis Applied Discovery