Electronically Stored Information

Sponsored

  • eDiscovery

    E-Discovery Cases — Herding Cats Would Be Easier

    Two disturbing cases for different, but similar reasons. When did parties jump from collection and culling of documents to simply turning over all possible evidence blindly and relying on a claw back agreement to protect the producing party? Putting aside that works entirely in favor of the receiving party, this may be a viable solution in a very small percentage of cases, but for a defendant to argue to a Court that the Plaintiff should blindly produce backup tapes with only a claw back agreement as protection is ludicrous. That is one side of the argument made in Dynamo Holdings Limited Partnership, et al, Petitioner vs the Commissioner of Internal Revenue; Beekman Vista, Inc vs the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (Docket Nos. 2685-11, 8393-12).
  • eDiscovery

    Two Basics: Don’t Accept Candy From Strangers and Avoid Falling Into the “Document Dump[s]”

    A recent order issued by M.J. Paul Grewal in Venture Corp. Ltd., et al. v. Barrett, No. 5:13-cv-03384, 2014 WL 5305575 (N.D. Cal. October 16, 2014) provides a useful reminder for all litigators: “Rule 34 (Producing Documents, Electronically Stored Information, and Tangible Things) is about as basic to any civil case as it gets. And yet, over and over again, the undersigned is confronted with misapprehension of its standards and elements by even experienced counsel. Unfortunately, this case presents yet another example.”
  • eDiscovery

    “Reasonable Inquiry”: Complying With Rule 26(g) In The Age Of Technology

    There can be little debate that electronically stored information (“ESI”) has altered the landscape of discovery in civil litigation. The number of devices that transmit or store electronic data as well as the volume of data in existence have increased exponentially in recent years. The rules and underlying principles governing discovery in civil litigation, however, remain largely unchanged. In light of the voluminous available data and the myriad of methods for storing and accessing such data, attorneys should examine their normal practice of gathering information responsive to discovery requests and subject to disclosure, especially when ESI is involved, so they do not fun afoul of their obligations under Rule 26(g).
  • eDiscovery

    E-discovery Is Hard

    Catchy blog titles are usually hard too, but not this one. Discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”) is just plain difficult. If you are lucky, it does not come up in your case at all. Or, the parties agree that only certain emails during a certain period of time are relevant to the dispute. If you are unlucky, you might find yourself in the middle of a massive theft of trade secrets case involving customer lists with thousands of names and an email address for each one of them. At that point, expect to spend several months creating an ESI discovery protocol with your opposing counsel – a process of negotiating everything from search terms to custodian/device lists to hard drive/server copying formats, and so on and so forth. Once that part is finished, you still have to engage in discovery according to the protocol.