A corporation does not have a formal data destruction policy. During which phase of a criminal legal proceeding will this have the MOST impact?

Arraignment is the initial court appearance where charges are read and a plea is entered, which does not involve the examination of corporate data policies or evidence handling procedures.

While evidence is presented at trial, the admissibility and completeness of evidence has already been determined during discovery, making the lack of a data destruction policy less directly impactful at this stage.

Sentencing occurs after a verdict has been reached and focuses on determining punishment, not on the corporation's data management practices or the completeness of evidence produced.

During discovery, both parties are legally required to preserve and produce relevant electronically stored information (ESI) and documents. Without a formal data destruction policy, a corporation cannot demonstrate that data was destroyed in good faith through routine business processes (safe harbor), meaning destroyed data could be considered spoliation of evidence, leading to severe sanctions such as adverse inference instructions or case dismissal.