Digital Evidence - The Legal System Is Playing Catch-up

From Fitbit to PlayStation, the justice system is drowning in digital evidence | WIRED UK. There is no question that the amount of digital data, and thus potential digital evidence in civil and criminal litigation, is increasing exponentially. As the Internet of Things becomes a reality, there is a digital chip in just about everything in our lives, from our clothing to our refrigerators. CCTV is no longer a commercial reality; it is in our homes, our cars, and our bedrooms. What's a lawyer to do? It can be the most expensive part of litigation just to conduct discovery, when we must postulate, locate and mine data from Smartwatches, Smartphones, video doorbells, cloud data storage, computer drives, tiny MicroSD cards, and who knows what else. Collecting the devices, and mining the data is just the beginning. Authenticating the devices, proving relevance, evidentiary hearings, and use at trial makes every lawyer a computer expert. The rules of evidence, as many laws and regulations, lag behind the technology, creating another layer of complexity for trial lawyers. Sometimes, it is good to be conservative in updating laws. However, now is not that time.