Metadata means 'data about data'. It is the information that exists in every electronic document describing how, when, and by whom it was created, when it was modified, and how it was transmitted.

An e-mail, for example, will carry metadata concerning the author, creation date, attachments, and identities of all recipients, including those who only received a cc or bcc (blind carbon copy). It will also tell you whether that e-mail formed part of a 'thread' of e-mails representing a conversation.


A word-processed document or spreadsheet will contain embedded within it the document's author, save date and location, and may also contain a record of previous versions, editors and modifications made.


Why is this important? Metadata forms part of the raw material that various e-disclosure software packages use to make sophisticated searches of electronic documentation possible. Many solutions convert documents to make reviewing quicker: metadata can be captured in a PDF or a load file (a file that links text information to the scanned image of a document) mapped to an image file, such as a TIFF. If you fail to capture metadata, documents will take longer to review.


When it is relevant to see what a witness knew and when, the metadata will not only be a vital tool for searching and analysing documents but will also be disclosable - see the practice direction with part 31 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR).


As most cases will turn on what a document says, rather than what its history reveals (that is, the text of the document rather than the metadata), metadata will only infrequently be strictly disclosable.


But delivering disclosable electronic documents to an inspecting party without the accompanying metadata, or just printing the documents out, will mean they take far longer to inspect. Remember the overriding objective of the CPR - if you make life difficult for your opponent, they will no doubt make life difficult for you.


Finally, beware using proportionality to justify removing metadata from disclosable documents - it does not cost any more to capture metadata or include it with disclosed electronic documents. In the long run, including metadata is likely to reduce the review and inspection costs.


Jon Brewer is the head of practitioner solutions at LexisNexis, and leads the company's e-disclosure service