Belgium: The Ediscovery Capital of Europe
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KrolLDiscovery is your international ediscovery resource, with current information about predictive coding in Australia and Ireland, ediscovery cooperation in Canada, fighting fraud in France, and data protection in the U.K., Japan and China.
Our 2017 ediscovery world tour brings us next to Belgium. As a divided country linguistically, culturally and geographically, Belgium has impacted the way leading international corporations and law firms are implementing new ediscovery practices.
Unique Ediscovery Practices in Belgium
To speak of Belgium is to speak of Brussels. It is undeniable that Brussels is at the center of the European Union and the host of the European Commission itself. Brussels is perhaps the most international city in the world, attracting leading international corporations and law firms. When it comes to ediscovery, Belgium has two distinct markets – international and national. As a result, Brussels has become one of the biggest ediscovery markets in Europe due to the size and the number of cases worked on in country. Law firms in Brussels work globally and rely on sophisticated ediscovery technologies for international cases.
Ediscovery Technology Needed Outside of Brussels
As the de facto capital of Europe, Belgium is at the center of the European ediscovery and yet, at the same time, removed from it. At the focal point, there are a massive amount of investigations in Brussels, yet there are no formal discovery requirements in country. As such, there is a greater need for education on the applications of ediscovery technology for companies and law firms who are operating outside of Brussels. A majority of Belgian ediscovery users are prominent, global law firms, working in competition-focused practice areas that involve multiple jurisdictions. By other law firms becoming educated on various ediscovery technology, it will improve how volumes of electronic data and documents in different languages are handled. Furthermore, corporations will be more likely to use ediscovery technology following a dawn raid and for large-scale compliance audits, culminating in more effective management of these legal matters.
Tips When Conducting Ediscovery in Belgium
- Select an ediscovery provider that is as international as the case; this will go a long way to reducing cultural, legal and linguistic misunderstandings.
- When there are large merger control cases, choose the best review technology available, with advanced analytics and predicative coding, in order to not be penalized for missing documents or deadlines.
Don’t be afraid to use ediscovery technology in new areas, such as arbitration or compliance audits. International firms in Brussels are increasingly using ediscovery technology in new legal scenarios that involve large data sets.