When it comes to running a successful small business, it’s paramount for you to maintain a custom database software that holds crucial information and documents. If businesses happen to find themselves in the midst of a lawsuit, having access to this database can be the difference between showing the necessary documents and information for litigation and conducting what is known as an electronic discovery, or e-Discovery.

According to Inc. Magazine, e-Discovery is the process in which analysts are able to extract data from the internet to be exchanged and analyzed during litigation, or as part of an investigation by government bodies. It’s time consuming, exhausting and very expensive.

“E-Discovery is a complicated, messy process,” said Andrew Sieja, founder and CEO of kCura, a major Chicago data and analytics software company, to Inc. “The collection phase involves the snatching of data from, say, the laptops of 50 different people. It requires experts to really understand where to pull data from the network.”

The expertise needed to pull off a competent e-Discovery has sparked an entire industry. The market has grown by an annual rate of 14 percent over the past few years and is predicted to reach a $1.7 billion worth by 2014.

While the major industry tycoons in tech, oil, finance and energy were the first to issue the use of e-Discovery experts, small to medium sized businesses have started to catch on despite its costs, as all it takes is one lawsuit to significantly harm a company. E-discovery is becoming one of the best ways you can defend yourself in court as it provides a massive amount of data from a very complicated medium.

To help protect against data loss and the costliness of e-Discovery, you should utilize a custom database software much like FileMaker that will allow you to store and access these necessary materials in the chance they are needed for legal issues.