District Attorney Collaboration with Public Defender and Private Defense Counsel on eDiscovery

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office (DA) developed the eDiscovery system to streamline the dissemination of discovery materials to defense counsel. In criminal cases, defendants have the right to have access to all of the evidence the prosecution has assembled to prove the charges filed against them. The process of making the evidence available to the other party is known as providing “discovery”. All physical evidence, documents, audio and visual media are subject to discovery. Historically, discovery is provided to defense counsel by the DA via the reproduction and cataloging of all paper documents, and all audio and video media. The defense counsel would then travel to a DA facility and pay a fee to obtain the discovery. The DA handles 50,000 cases annually, creating the need to reproduce enormous amounts of discovery. Discovery is the foundation of each case in the criminal justice system and is integral element of the pursuit of truth and justice. The streamlining and automation of this processes impacts the entire system. A countywide process was initiated to develop and implement the efficient and effective dissemination of discovery. The eDiscovery system provides defense counsel with access to discovery using a secure web based system for private defense attorneys and a direct connection for the Public Defender (PD). Defense counsel can now download their discovery from any location with Internet access at no charge, reducing public and private costs and positively impacting the environment.