Keyword searches are used frequently in the discovery process for multiple reasons including: the simplistic nature of performing the search, the low cost associated with the feature since it is built into many of today’s e-discovery platforms, and because courts regularly accept keyword search procedures in their discovery protocols.  However, as technology becomes more advanced and the amount of data that is produced increases, litigants and courts are beginning to realize that keyword searches may not be the most effective way of filtering the data.

More specifically, keyword searches have an essential flaw: when a litigant uses keyword searches valuable evidence may be missed due to the ergonomic concept of human error, such as spelling. That is exactly what investigators discovered in the Casey Anthony matter.  Investigators and prosecutors spent nearly three years collecting, analyzing, and preparing for the Casey Anthony Trial.  That preparation included searching a computer hard-drive, which was often used by Casey Anthony.

Throughout the case, prosecutors argued that Caylee was poisoned with chloroform and then suffocated using duct tape.  Unfortunately, her body was found about six months after she disappeared and was too decomposed for her cause of death to be determined.  When trying to convict Casey Anthony, prosecutors produced only a few vague entries created by the computer’s Internet Explorer (“IE”) browser, which included a search for information about making chlorophyll, but Casey Anthony’s mother testified that she was the one who conducted that search.

The initial search conducted by investigators that brought to light the IE browser’s files, however, overlooked over 1,200 entries that were created by the Firefox browser, another browser that was also located on the computer’s hard-drive. Those overlooked entries included a Google search for the term “fool-proof suffication,” a misspelling of “suffocation”.  Whomever conducted the misspelled search also clicked on an article about suicide, which discussed taking poison and putting a bag over a person’s head. Additionally, the Firefox browser recorded activity on the social networking site MySpace, which was commonly used by Casey Anthony.

via The Problem With Keyword Searches: Not Everyone Can Spell | Cullen and Dykman LLP – JDSupra.