How To Export Slack Messages and Files for Litigation Discovery

Many businesses have simplified internal communications by using Slack more than email. However, that means that a legal case could require you to export Slack messages and files for litigation discovery.

Doing so efficiently gives you the evidence you need with time to prepare your case. Learn when you may have to use Slack export for discovery and how to do it.

Why You May Have To Export Slack Messages and Files for Litigation Discovery

Slack has an estimated 32 million daily users and over 54 million users monthly. Your team is surely using Slack to stay connected and streamline collaboration.

The constant activity means relevant evidence could show up on your Slack channels, either as conversations or attachments. Reasons for litigation discovery include handling legal compliance, contractual disputes, workplace investigations, employee misconduct, and theft of intellectual property. Likewise, you should be able to back up and archive your data for security.

Can Slack Messages Be Used in Court?

Yes, Slack messages can serve as evidence in court. Electronically stored information (ESI) has become an important resource in modern trials.

Just because you own and have privacy protections for the data doesn’t mean you can keep it out of the court’s view any more than you can physical documents. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 26 for United States district courts gives ESI a broad definition that permits text, images, and any other digital data to be evidence. This means litigants can expect that they may have to export Slack messages and files for litigation discovery.

The U.S. government also included amendments in 2006 to make ESI its own category of evidence. The scope encompasses all future forms of electronic information. The European Union has similar rules to facilitate cross-border investigations.

Interestingly, Slack’s core mission makes its contents ideal for use in court and investigations. The name is an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge”. As a result, it serves as a rich reference and database for past interactions, including in legal settings.

Are Slack Messages Discoverable?

Yes, Slack messages are discoverable in trials. Therefore, you must not only be ready to present it as evidence; you also need to be able to disclose it to the opposing party during the discovery process.

FRCP 34 allows a requesting party to inspect, test, sample, and copy discoverable ESI. This point emphasizes the need to properly store ESI to build an airtight case. Amendments to Rule 34 ensure that as technology advances, discovery rules must keep up and allow all parties sufficient access to data.

How You Can Export Slack Messages and Files for Litigation Discovery

You have two choices for exporting Slack messages and files. Within the platform itself, you can manually export the data. Otherwise, you can expedite the process with a cloud-based data management solution.

Manual Process on Standard Export for Discovery

One way to export Slack messages and files for litigation discovery is to use the export function for each conversation you want to download. Administrators and owners can export data from public channels, including:

• Messages
• Files
• Activity logs
• Links to shared files
• Whole archived channels

You accomplish this with a Standard Export. However, Standard Export doesn’t allow you to specify which data sets you want except for by date. Everything goes into a ZIP file you can download with each channel in a separate folder.

The export also separates communication by each day into a single file in JSON format. For that reason, you need software that can convert that into readable text and spreadsheets.

Administrators of a Free or Pro plan must request an export of Slack messages and files for litigation discovery if they include private channels or direct messages. The person must provide consent from the users of the files. Otherwise, Slack needs proof that the download is a right or requirement under the law or part of a valid legal process.

Manual Process for Corporate Export

If you’re a large enterprise, you should be using the Business+ and Enterprise Slack plans. These permit data export for all messages, including private and direct messages, with a Corporate Export.

Corporate Exports also allow the scheduling of regular Slack exports for discovery. Still, the process will download the files into ZIP files, just as Standard Exports do. Therefore, finding pertinent data requires manually sifting and searching through files.

The process starts with going to the sidebar and clicking the name of the appropriate workspace. Under the “Tools & Settings” tab, click “Workspace Settings,” and a new tab will open.

1. Click on “Import/Export Data” in the top right corner.
2. Go to the “Export” tab and the “Export date range” section.
3. Select the dates you would like to export.
4. Click “Start Export.”

You will receive an email later to tell you when the file is ready. In the email, select “Visit your workspace’s export page.” On the page, you can click “Ready for Download” to get the ZIP file.

As you can tell, manual processes can quickly become tedious and time-consuming for selecting and sorting through data.

Automated Discovery With Cloud-Based Software

You can make eDiscovery much easier by using Cloudficient Expireon to export Slack messages and files for litigation discovery. You won’t have to manually comb through every single conversation that you think may relate to the case.

For starters, you can filter conversations and files for relevancy, providing you know precisely what you’re looking for with your initial search. Using Expireon, what could have taken hours manually could end up taking only minutes or seconds.

You also don’t have to worry about trying to read the JSON file or converting it with another software (which raises other privacy and compliance issues). Expireon makes Slack communications easily searchable and readable.

Beyond just the date search, you can also use targeted indexing to find the exact information you require. Granular search allows you to filter by additional details and specific content.

As an example, instead of sorting through every message from a particular period, you can filter for all messages that include a specific phrase. A preview feature lets you check that a file is what you’re looking for before going further, making discovery that much easier.

Streamline How You Export Slack Messages and Files for Litigation Discovery

You will likely have to account for eDiscovery during the course of doing business. However, the process shouldn’t be overly time-consuming or complex.

Cloudficient Expireon provides the optimal solution for retaining your Slack information and makes it easy to export Slack messages and files for litigation discovery. Talk to our team to learn more about how we help you keep Slack communications compliant and accessible.

Cloudficient’s unrivaled, next generation, cloud archive technology, Expireon, is revolutionizing the way businesses manage data during and after enterprise transformation projects. Guiding customers through every step of the process, our expert team provides the support and solutions you need to succeed. 

Whether you are expiring legacy archives, migrating data to the cloud, or requiring ongoing data capture and retention, Expireon allows you to discover more, process less! 

Bring Cloudficiency to your Information Governance: visit our website or contact us directly.