Patent ID: 8275720

Claim:
A computer implemented method for external scoping of sources of information to determine affected people, systems, and classes of information in legal matters, comprising the steps of: managing a list of external sources that are able to provide at least one list of affected elements that contain or have custody of evidence in legal matters, the external sources comprising sources external to a litigation management system, and the affected elements comprising people, systems, and classes of information in the legal matters, based upon specific legal matter parameters; providing a communication protocol including one or more external datasource adapters to enable import of the at least one list of affected elements from the external sources into the litigation management system; providing a user interface operable on a computer and configured to enable triggering or executing of the import of the at least one list of affected elements from the external sources using the communication protocol, wherein the user interface is further operable to enable selection of one or more affected elements in the at least one list of affected elements for import from the external sources into the litigation management system; resolving, by the computer, conflicts between different lists of affected elements that are imported in a same request scope, wherein the conflicts arise if the different lists of affected elements identify a same affected element in the same request scope as part of differing affiliations and associations; resolving, by the computer, conflicts between different lists of affected elements from a same external source which are imported at different points in time; and tracking, displaying, and reporting the external sources with regard to where in the external sources each element in the list of affected elements originated, modifications that occurred after an initial import, and all reasons provided by an operator via the user interface or an external source to justify an initial import or follow-up changes.