Social media is causing headaches for organsations concerned about the ediscovery implications, according to a new survey commissioned by Deloitte’s US-based Forensic Center.

During the next three years, 49 percent of respondents expect their companies' information technology department to increase e-discovery efforts; 44 percent expect e-discovery challenges to increase; and 39 percent expect to devote more resources to e-discovery.

However, of respondents with an opinion, 61 percent expect their companies to be only somewhat effective or not effective at all in dealing with e-discovery challenges three years from now.

One-quarter of respondents indicated their companies are unprepared to handle e-discovery requests pertaining to business-related use of social media, and an additional 36 percent indicated their companies are only somewhat prepared.

Beyond social media platforms, only 9 percent of companies are well prepared to capture electronically stored information on third-party platforms, such as information stored in the cloud or used in software-as-a-service (SAAS) applications.

"The demands of e-discovery are clearly growing. Facebook and Twitter have not only become more prevalent in employees' personal lives, but have also become more accepted in the workplace, as companies are beginning to leverage social media platforms throughout the corporate environment," said Deloitte analyst Jeff Seymour.

"With electronically stored information rapidly rising in volume, avoiding e-discovery missteps requires cooperation from two corporate functions that typically have little in common and often don't speak the same language: legal and IT."

Communication challenges between legal and IT teams seem to be admitted by both sides. Only 23 percent of those who work in compliance, risk assessment or the legal department, and who have an opinion, say their IT department understands legal requirements for e-discovery very well. Coincidentally, only 23 percent of IT respondents with an opinion said their legal department understands very well the limits of what IT can do to support e-discovery.

"The predominant lack of effective communication between legal and IT functions can have serious repercussions including sanctions, lost cases and severe fines," said Toby Bishop, director of the Deloitte Forensic Center.

"This communication challenge should be overcome if the risk of e-discovery missteps is to be mitigated. Cross-functional e-discovery training can help IT personnel understand what the legal team needs from them, and to help the legal team understand what IT can and cannot accomplish with the skills and resources they have."

The complete survey report is available at www.deloitte.com/forensiccenter