E-Discovery News

6 Factors Help Avoid an E-Discovery Disaster
Aug 6: While the British Petroleum leak in the Gulf is being plugged, legal claims from the oil spill are just starting to flow. The leak has resulted in an environmental and economic disaster, ruining countless lives and businesses -- not to mention the havoc that it has wreaked on wildlife and the sea. With the catastrophe, lawsuits by fishermen, business owners, and others have followed. Class actions and individual lawsuits have already been filed by major plaintiffs law firms competing for clients.

Emailing from Work Could Cost You Legal Protection
Aug 4: Although the recent Quon decision from the US Supreme Court does not directly deal with the issue of attorney-client privilege, recent cases have raised the question whether attorney-client privilege can be preserved when an employee uses company computers and telecommunications systems to communicate with counsel.

Falling through clouds: Legally, do you dare trust your business’s data to the cloud?
Aug 3: Everyone knows the big virtues of using cloud computing services: They're cheap, you can scale them on demand, and they're fault-tolerant. Everyone also thinks they know cloud computing's vices: a variety of security and management concerns. What a lot of people have been missing, though, is that there's another real problem with cloud computing: legal liability.

Federal CIO Details Cloud Computing Gains
Aug 2: Current and planned cloud deployments among agencies vary from a new online database from the Social Security Administration to answer U.S. citizens' frequently asked questions, to the migration of more than 15,000 e-mail boxes to the cloud at the General Services Administration (GSA).

Pilot Program Attacks eDiscovery Burdens
Aug 1: Ever since becoming chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois four years ago, James Holderman has listened to the same lament from business executives and attorneys about the state of electronic discovery: It’s expensive, burdensome and time consuming for everyone involved. Over and over, he heard about the need to minimize that burden.

Piloting eDiscovery Rules in the 7th Circuit
Jul 26: Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had a long background as a criminal defense attorney before becoming a judge. She says that her background left her unprepared for the battles over discovery of electronic evidence she has encountered in the world of civil litigation. "I was not able to get my arms around all of the fighting over discovery," she says. "I know that some people have snickered about this idea that you can get lawyers to make nice and cooperate on discovery. But I believe it is possible."

Federal Judge Approves Discovery Agreement in Toyota MDL
Jul 21: The judge in the multidistrict litigation (MDL) against Toyota Motor Corp. over sudden unintended acceleration approved a joint discovery plan on Tuesday, forestalling a fight over access to evidence.

First Half Trends in Electronic Discovery Sanctions
Jul 20: It’s been a busy year already in the world of electronic discovery. Among other things, the first half of 2010 brought a number of new rulings related to e-discovery sanctions.

Smarsh Latest to Offer Text Archiving, Compliance Help
Jul 14: In City of Ontario v. Quon, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Ontario, Calif., Police Department did not violate Quon's rights when it searched and read the text messages he sent and received using department-issued devices. The court said Quon's expectation that the messages would remain private was unreasonable, especially since Quon frequently exceeded the limit on number of messages, most of the messages were personal, and all were sent and received on department-issued devices.

Culpability for Allowing Evidence to Become Inaccessible a Factor for Consideration When Determining Good Cause to Compel Production
Jun 30: Appealing an order from the magistrate judge, plaintiffs argued that defendants should bear the costs of producing inaccessible data where it was defendants’ failure to preserve that resulted in the data’s inaccessibility. The court declined to support such a rule, finding that defendants’ culpability was merely a factor for consideration when deciding whether to compel production for good cause. The court also found that the magistrate judge had adequately considered defendants’ culpability when crafting the underlying order and did not abuse his discretion. Accordingly, the order was affirmed.

Are eDiscovery Sanctions Tough Enough?
Jun 28: Sanctions are perhaps the most devastating penalty a judge can impose on a party in civil litigation. In disputes over electronic evidence in litigation, sanctions have generated a lot of attention, though some judges say the impact is overstated. "I would like to straighten out the idea that judges issue a lot of sanctions," says Shira Scheindlin, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, who recently issued her first e-discovery sanctions since 2004. "In six years I have issued no sanctions. Even if the number of sanctions is going up, in terms of raw numbers, it’s still very small."

Social Networks Pose E-Discovery Risks
Jun 17: Two-thirds of businesses worry about the e-discovery risks posed by social networks, but 25% say they're not prepared, and 33% think they're only partially prepared, to meet related e-discovery requests. Furthermore, only 9% of companies think they're well prepared to deal with e-discovery requests for information stored in cloud-based applications.

EDD ‘Safe Harbor’ Defense No Laughing Matter
Jun 15: In a March 15 decision in Wilson v. Thorn Energy LLC, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York Frank Maas sanctioned defendants for spoliation after they could not produce an accounting because the USB flash or thumb drive on which their records resided failed.

E-Discovery: A Litigator’s Perspective
Jun 9: For today's litigators, e-discovery is clearly a two-edged sword. On the positive side, attorneys have much greater access to information that was not available in the past. Today, people are more apt to communicate in writing rather than by telephone. Revealing comments about a matter are often transmitted in e-mail, text messages, and social media, providing clear, hard, discoverable evidence for a plaintiffs or defense attorney. But based on our experience in representing a foreign bank in a $23 million civil theft claim against a group of Broward County defendants, e-discovery can be an expensive, time-consuming process adding to the cost of litigation and the necessity of state-of-art technology in the courtroom.

To Preserve and Collect-BP Oil Spill a Discovery Nightmare for Lawyers
Jun 7: The legal strategies for BP and other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster have yet to be revealed. But one thing is certain. Their in-house legal departments are in the midst of an expensive and Herculean task - discovery.

‘To Preserve and Collect’: Oil Spill a Discovery Nightmare for Lawyers
Jun 4: The legal strategies for BP and other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster have yet to be revealed. But one thing is certain. Their in-house legal departments are in the midst of an expensive and Herculean task — discovery.

TSA wants cyber forensics info
Jun 2: The Transportation Security Administration wants information about commercially available computer security forensics technologies it could use for information technology security.

When is an E-Discovery Burden an Undue Burden?
Jun 1: Judge Shira Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has a basic rule for estimating the cost to discover electronic records in any given trial. "A court should always be skeptical at the first dollar amount thrown out by either party," she says. "I ask the requesting party to explain their estimate, and then consult the producing party or a court-appointed neutral party until a figure can be agreed on. It almost always seems to be a figure right in the middle between what the two parties initially give."

Results of test run praised
May 28: The first phase of the Seventh Circuit’s Electronic Discovery Pilot Program is complete and the program has resulted in positive feedback from both attorneys and judges.

Reducing the ESI Burden of Privilege Logs
May 20: Privilege logs were never a fun part of business litigation. There are few tasks more tedious than logging individual pieces of correspondence by date, author, recipients, subject matter, reason withheld, etc. In the era of electronically stored information, the creation of a document-by-document privilege log has gone beyond mere tedium to become one of the more costly elements of an ESI burden that, by itself, may be dissuading businesses from pursuing commercial litigation at all. Something has to be done, say many, or else the burden of ESI discovery will foreclose litigation as an option for resolving modestly sized disputes. The authors of a recent law review article, building upon the work of The Sedona Conference, think they have a solution.

Mechanisms That Help Reduce the Cost of E-Discovery
May 19: No matter how vigilant, there is no way to fully insulate yourself from a potential lawsuit. It should come as no surprise that defending a lawsuit, even one where you are ultimately not liable, can be costly. Advancements in technology, including the ubiquitous use of e-mail, can significantly increase the cost of litigation. With all of the unavoidable expenses associated with litigation, in these economic times it is necessary to implement mechanisms that help curtail the cost of litigation, especially with regard to electronic discovery.

Wisconsin Supreme Court tackles creating e-discovery standards
May 17: Attorneys in Wisconsin will finally have guidance on the discovery of electronically stored information after the state Supreme Court adopted part of the federal court system’s e-discovery guidelines.

Federal Pilot Program Curbs E-Discovery Fights
May 14: The results of the first phase of a closely watched federal court pilot program on electronic discovery show that having a set of fair-play rules at the outset of a case helps quell pretrial brawls between parties.

Risk Management and E-Discovery: Qualcomm Revisited
May 12: Almost three years ago, we wrote about the tension between a lawyer's defense of his own professional conduct and his duties of loyalty and confidentiality to his client. The issue was presented in Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp., a California patent infringement case involving cell phone technology.

Big Jump Predicted in Use of eDiscovery
May 11: Among more than 650 IT professionals surveyed in a CompTIA survey, E-Discovery Trends and Practices, 53 percent expect the use of ediscovery within their organizations to increase over the next few years.

When E-Discovery is Used as a Weapon
May 11: The attorney-client privilege is perhaps the oldest of the privileges for confidential communications known to common law. But the privilege is not available to a client who seeks legal advice to commit an ongoing or future crime or fraud. To prevent those abuses, courts have fashioned a limited exception to the privilege known as the crime-fraud exception.

Getting Ediscovery to Work for You
Apr 29: Locating, securing and producing all the electronically stored information required in the discovery phase of civil litigation can be very time consuming and extremely expensive. However, failure to produce the required information in a timely fashion can lead to fines running into millions of dollars, thanks to revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that came into effect in December 2006.

The Last Words on E-Discovery?
Apr 28: Two recent e-discovery decisions, the Jan. 15 decision by U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Shira A. Scheindlin in Pension Committee of the University of Montreal Pension Plan v. Bank of America Securities and the Feb. 19 decision by U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas Lee H. Rosenthal Rimkus Consulting Group Inc. v. Cammarata, focused on the issue of how to gauge the relevance of e-discovery lost by the producing party at the prejudice of that loss to the requesting party when the e-discovery is, by definition, lost and so unknown.

Why you should know the difference between search tools and discovery tools
Apr 28: Government information technology workers might have heard the following three phrases used interchangeably: search tools, information discovery tools and e-discovery tools.

(Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick) Wake Up!
Mar 31: The Jan. 15, 2010, opinion of Judge Shira Scheindlin in Pension Committee of the University of Montreal Pension Plan et al., v. Banc of America Securities, LLC (Pension Committee) is potentially the most significant e-discovery decision affecting counsel and litigants in six years.

Don't lose sleep over U.S. e-discovery nightmares
Mar 25: What, exactly, is the difference between e-discovery laws in Canada and the U.S.? Two lawyers highlight the basics for those of us who don't work in the legal department.

The Electronic Turn in Criminal Subpoenas
Mar 23: Companies served with a criminal subpoena often face a challenging dilemma. With hundreds of gigabytes, or even a few terabytes, of electronically stored information on their servers and employees' hard drives, how do they ensure an adequate response to the subpoena without their electronic discovery costs spiraling out of control?

ESI Culling: Trouble with Image Files
Mar 18: Combining this case knowledge with some of the culling strategies discussed here will help result in cleaner, more relevant datasets and will provide you with a distinct and valuable edge over less technically competent opponents.

Itsy-Bitsy, Teeny-Weeny E-Discovery
Feb 22: As EDD increasingly becomes an issue in smaller cases for smaller law firms, small and solo lawyers are learning some hard lessons about electronic evidence in litigation.

Don’t Kill The Lawyers
Feb 12: When Courts Demand Electronic Documents, IT & Legal Counsel Must Work Together

Regulators Set Own Limits on E-Discovery
Feb 4: The Federal Trade Commission is getting more aggressive in its enforcement efforts, and companies and their attorneys would be wise to maintain solid electronic document preservation systems and to cooperate with regulators from the onset of investigations.

Don't Put E-Discovery on the Back Burner
Jan 22: A recent survey from Clearwell Systems and Enterprise Strategy Group reveals that a significant majority of companies are contemplating bringing e-discovery in house this year in an effort to decrease costs.

Databases A Top Target For E-Discovery
Jan 13: A new survey shows that application databases were the number one target of discovery requests in 2009, displacing typical sources such as e-mail archives, file servers and laptops. If this trend continues, it means even bigger e-discovery headaches for IT.

Gartner Provides Advice on the eDiscovery Vendor Landscape
Jan 8: It has often been said that recession is good for business. In the ranks of eDiscovery software vendors there are few who will argue as recent research by Gartner shows companies moving to in-house eDiscovery and a corresponding, consistent growth in sales of eDiscovery software.

E-Discovery Requests Set to Rise in 2010
Jan 8: As companies are looking for innovate their way out of the recession, strategically cutting costs could be one viable option. Bringing services and processes in-house to gain more control might be another way to shake things up.

Commentary: Give EDD a Chance to Grow Up
Dec 15: Before making changes to the federal rules again, perhaps we should let electronic discovery (and the attorneys who use it) mature first.

New Importance In Metadata Collection
Dec 7: Metadata has been around for a long time but is garnering new attention in the eDiscovery world.

EDD Tale: Caught in the Middle
Nov 23: Computer forensic examiners can play several roles in litigation. Their basic function is to manage legal evidence found in computers and digital storage media for litigation. Often hired by one party or another, they are also sometimes appointed by the courts to serve as special master, a neutral role.

The Convergence of eDiscovery, Internal Investigations and Compliance
Nov 18: The buzz at the 2009 ACC Annual Convention in Boston was that inside counsel are focused on internal investigations, eDiscovery and compliance because of the global convergence of these practice areas.

Insider trading: Nowhere to hide anymore using phones or e-mail
Nov 13: In the age of e-discovery, it’s been drilled into business executives’ heads that you shouldn’t put anything in an e-mail that you don’t want to see on Page 1. Now, in light of developments in the Galleon Group insider trading case, the next edict might be to avoid feeding the headlines with something you say on the phone.

Cloudy Thinking: eDiscovery In The Cloud
Nov 12: The phrase "eDiscovery in the cloud" is so vast as to be meaningless. You have got to pin down your definitions of what kind of cloud you're talking about before you can talk about doing eDiscovery in it. I'm writing a lengthy article on this subject so I can get to the meat of it, but for this post I'll do a quick and dirty drive-by.

UPS Cuts Costs With E-Discovery Counsel
Nov 11: E-discovery is a huge expense, even for big companies with lots of resources. United Parcel Service is no exception, and its legal department had enough.

N.J. Justice Addresses E-Discovery Issues
Nov 10: The New Jersey Supreme Court has formed a committee to look at the practices agencies and lawyers around the state are using, and what can be done to make e-discovery cost-effective and accessible to all.

Charges filed against 14 in hedge-fund insider-trading case
Nov 5: Reporting from New York - The biggest insider-trading case in a generation expanded further today as federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against 14 investment professionals in a $20-million scheme in which they allegedly swapped tips on a variety of corporate mergers.

Lawyers in Discovery Scandal Say Qualcomm Lied
Nov 3: Lawyers in the Qualcomm discovery scandal claim that the company misled and stonewalled them, ultimately leading to the failure to turn over a mountain of relevant evidence and harsh sanctions from the court.

IT and General Counsel Together At Last - Or Not
Oct 30: The upshot is that GCO and IT need one another. GCO needs IT to guide it on technology choices near the beginning of the eDiscovery cycle and IT needs GCO to guide it on legal needs and considerations.

Records and the Threat of Cloud Computing
Oct 30: There could come a time where records management -- not legal compliance but good old fashioned information management -- will become an irrelevance; that would be tragic, but that time could come, and sooner than some may imagine.

E-discovery spending slows a bit
Oct 29: Dean Gonsowski, VP of E-discovery Services at Clearwell Systems says, "Like many other large budget line items, expenses around e-discovery will continue to be closely scrutinized next year. As a result, we'll see more companies trying to contain costs by bringing early case analysis technologies in-house to dramatically reduce costs and deliver strong ROI."

Sedona Continues Call for Cooperation
Oct 29: Unfortunately, the warrior mentality remains prevalent and probably will continue to manifest itself in the discovery process until the Cooperation Proclamation becomes even more widely recognized. In situations involving an unwilling dance partner, the best course of action simply may be to document cooperative overtures and the basis for making them -- as well as the uncivil responses received.

Pitfalls of Cross-Border Investigations
Oct 28: The fact that government agencies around the world are beginning to coordinate their efforts when investigating potential violations of local laws does not bode well for companies facing them. The ability to manage cross-border investigations can test even the most experienced of lawyers and, therefore, great care should be taken to fully understand the jurisprudence and cultural idiosyncrasies in each jurisdiction in which they may be held accountable for their actions.

Electronic evidence and e-discovery forum 2009 and ESI Trends
Oct 26: The Electronic evidence and e-discovery forum 2009 was organised by AKJ Associates, which organises events focusing on business risk, corporate strategy and security management – key elements in managing electronically stored information (ESI) and e-discovery.

Top Lawyers Discuss Risks of Landing in the Hot Seat
Oct 26: In-house lawyers at the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)'s annual meeting in Boston this week conferred on ways to combat the rising number of lawsuits and government investigations faced by their ranks.

Moving To A Digitized Workplace
Oct 23: The confluence of multiterabyte storage systems, sophisticated document management software, and digitized workflows means that enterprises are building key business processes around online forms and digital records. Yet, when transitioning to digital paperless systems, the archival and retention of records are critical policies that are often overlooked.

E-Discovery: Remembering Forgotten Data
Oct 21: As corporations rely more heavily on e-discovery, however, some serious flaws in traditional processes have become more and more prevalent, including a lack of a strategy to manage data before entering into litigation, thus unwittingly turning a blind eye to data that can make or break a case.

U.S. Companies’ Electronic-Discovery Spending Tripled in 2009
Oct 20: Budgets for managing electronic data tripled this year at average-sized U.S. companies, according to a study, as businesses braced for an influx of lawsuits stemming from a recession that’s been partly blamed on fraud.

Pa. Court Weighs In on E-Discovery
Oct 19: An electronic discovery request in a dispute over the authenticity of a classic car has prompted a rare opinion from a Pennsylvania court on the emerging issues surrounding the discovery of electronically stored files by litigants in a civil case.

FRE 502: One Year Later
Oct 13: Amended Rule 502 attempts to standardize federal procedures regarding privilege waiver following the inadvertent disclosure of information subject to the attorney-client privilege or work-product protection.

Stay E-Discovery Pending Motions to Dismiss
Oct 12: This article proposes a simple measure to rebalance the risks and rewards for parties involved in civil litigation, while preventing the potential abuse of e-discovery to extract nuisance settlements from defendants.

E-Mails Seen as a Flash Point for Bear Stearns Fund Managers' Fraud Trial
Oct 12: On Tuesday their trial will begin in federal district court in Brooklyn -- with Tannin's e-mails front and center in the prosecution's case.

E-Discovery Issues With Digital Voicemail
Oct 9: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of various digital voicemail arrangements, from very basic to fully unified, and to identify and discuss related e-discovery issues and practical considerations.

Toyota Calls Attacks on Its Discovery Practices 'Collateral' to Job Dispute
Oct 9: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) has moved to dismiss recent racketeering conspiracy allegations brought against the automaker on the grounds that the plaintiff, a former in-house attorney, has failed to establish the existence of an enterprise or that he was injured by the alleged conduct.

To Combat Overseas Bribery, Authorities Make It Personal
Oct 8: In its pursuit of overseas corruption, the Justice Department is getting personal. So far this year, a dozen executives and high-level employees of corporations have been criminally charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law bans companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges from bribing foreign government officials or employees of state-owned companies.

Move EDD Constraints to Your Advantage
Oct 6: This article challenges litigators to alter their preconceptions about the breadth of their document requests and the areas that they wish their adversaries to search, as an economically sensible reaction to the demands of e-discovery, but which also has intellectually motivated substantive benefits.

The Need for E-Discovery Standards: A Call From the Trenches
Oct 5: Most discussion about standards in electronic discovery focuses on the big-picture issues of scope, cost and cost shifting. These are important questions eloquently argued in the courts. However, they overlook the mundane, pick-and-shovel e-discovery concerns that affect every case.

Proper data management key to e-discovery
Oct 2: A new protocol introduced by local jurisdiction regarding the discovery and inspection of electronically-stored data in court proceedings, offers a "huge" opportunity for organizations to beef up their information management practices, according to a Hewlett-Packard executive.

Most States Have E-Discovery Requirements, Too
Oct 2: Most of the software out there now is better and less expensive than it was when the federal rules were first amended.

EDD SHOWCASE: Exploit Your Team
Oct 1: With increasing focus on the need for early case assessment, and with increasing pressure on parties to reduce electronic data discovery costs, paralegals have a great opportunity to be key players as your legal team develops its case strategy.

EDD SHOWCASE: Call to Disarm
Oct 1: Early case assessment makes a lot of sense in any dispute situation. Do you have a winner? What is the right forum? Will the costs outweigh the benefits? Is there really a need (business or personal) to pursue the dispute?

Handling Electronic Records: Risk Management And Investigations
Oct 1: In the modern business world, vast amounts of data are gathered, stored and communicated electronically. Therefore companies need to adequately manage the risks to their technology platforms.

Yahoo! Let My E-Mail Go!
Sep 25: Cloud computing poses e-discovery challenges of near-Biblical proportions because it's harder to access, isolate and search electronically stored information without physical dominion over the data.

Beyond Reproach: FCPA Compliance
Sep 24: It's important to create a culture of FCPA compliance within one's organisation. It is not something you can outsource or delegate to an outside provider.

Make your back-up and archiving fit for purpose
Sep 24: Distinctions between archive and back-up may blur but they remain vital components of any storage strategy.

Are You Managing Your Electronic Documents? Why Not?
Sep 24: AIIM has just published a report that shows 26% of organizations admitting that they have no electronic records management policy.

Federal, State Regs Push Email Server Archiving Adoption
Sep 24: Legal implications aside, implementing an archival system lets businesses better manage large volumes of existing email and file attachments. Moreover, archiving email is not only the best practice for data storage and retrieval but it also frees up space on email servers and eliminates the need to delete old messages, saving employees’ time.

Executives Expect FCPA Violations to Increase, Yet Some Are Unprepared
Sep 17: About one-third of companies report having no Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance program despite rising FCPA enforcement, according to a new Deloitte Financial Advisory Services online poll of 1,090 executives.

For CIOs, email deletion scandal shows need for email retention policy
Sep 17: Here in Boston, an email retention policy -- or a lack thereof -- is the juiciest news in town, as an email deletion scandal rocks City Hall in the face of next week's mayoral primary.

Data Loss Prevention Systems at Your Firm
Sep 16: A comprehensive data protection plan that includes tools to manage what information can be seen either on paper or online; prohibits unauthorized electronic distribution; and protects data while at rest or in transit is critical to ensuring privacy.

6 Actions For Your Records Management Strategy
Sep 14: The old adage about the only sure things in life that are certain are death and taxes springs to mind here; except with compliance and ediscovery issues you might also tack onto the end of that adage federal regulators.

Labor Lawyers Tell GCs to Expect More Litigation From New Obama Laws
Sep 11: If Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act, a barrage of other changes in labor and employment law will quickly follow, partly as a legacy to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, a longtime Washington attorney told a gathering of corporate lawyers.

Web Promises and Pitfalls for the Defense
Sep 10: The promises and the pitfalls of this digitally enhanced world are going to change the way people are defended and judged from now on.

X Marks the Spot: Lessons in Data Mapping
Sep 3: Really, simply e-mailing a "questionnaire" to the IT or operational folks asking for a list of applications, systems and platforms within the organization may not produce optimal results. Instead, a holistic approach to the creation of the data map must be undertaken.

Out With the Old IT, In With the New
Sep 2: With good leadership, streamlining IT infrastructure and rebalancing attention to IT practice technologies, law firms can have real effects on productivity and client relations.

When the Lawyers Come Knocking: Info Management and E-Discovery
Aug 31: Not being able to fulfill a request for discovery and information in its various electronics forms can come at a high penalty.

E-discovery best practices take hold in Canadian courtrooms, companies
Aug 30: New guidelines regarding electronic documents in court are starting to take hold in Canadian legal circles, according to law experts. But it could be some time before the Sedona Canada Principles Addressing Electronic Discovery become truly standard.

9th Circuit Sets Doctrine for Electronic Searches, Finds Steroids Case Search Unlawful
Aug 27: The Justice Department's aggressive steroids probe has led the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to enunciate a new set of Fourth Amendment protections for the digital age.

10 Questions to Ask IT Directors
Aug 26: During this economic downturn, here are 10 questions law firm managers should ask IT directors in order to best exploit existing technology.

Look Into the Future of Litigation Tech
Aug 26: In the single generation since computer litigation support became commonplace in American firms, the role of the lawyer as the primary agent in organizing and analyzing pretrial discovery has faded from foregone conclusion to marginal factor.

Court Orders Monetary Sanction for Failure to Preserve to be Paid by Defendant and Counsel
Aug 25: Upon one of the defendant’s revelation that she had lost all original versions of electronic files when she transferred those files to CD and then reinstalled her operating system, plaintiff filed a motion for sanctions.

Allocating E-Discovery Costs in New York
Aug 18: Who is responsible for paying the soaring costs incurred to preserve, search, retrieve, review and produce ESI in the discovery process?

Leaks in ESI Searches Can Be Costly
Aug 17: You need to know the capabilities and limits of the text extraction and indexing engines you deploy. Because if the index won't hold water, you're up a creek.

The Need for Forensics - Interview with Keith Barger of KPMG
Aug 14: With the heightened focus on cybersecurity - and increased incidents of insider crimes - the digital forensics practice has also gained a higher profile in both the private and public sectors.

United States: E-Discovery: Who Pays the Freight?
Aug 13: As litigants are coming to appreciate, electronic discovery is expensive, and indeed so much so, that at times it can be the dog wagging the tail in driving financial decisions when determining the value of a case from a resolution standpoint.

The Reinvention of Legal Research: The Future Is Now
Aug 13: Legal research -- once the province of desks, books, and binders -- is now online, data-driven, and real-time.

Will Increased Compliance Burdens Lead to Legal Process Outsourcing?
Aug 12: The June 17 release of the much-awaited proposal, "Financial Regulatory Reform: A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation," issued by the Department of the Treasury, quickly exposed a philosophic debate as to the best way to protect against future recessions caused in large part by financial market meltdowns.

e-Discovery Policy Could Have Stopped Steroid Leaks
Aug 11: From Alex Rodriguez to David Ortiz, the same question is asked every time the name of a big-time baseball player on "the list" is leaked to the press: how come the records weren't destroyed to begin with?

E-Discovery an Exception in Arbitration
Aug 10: The newly formed Dispute Resolution Section of the New York State Bar Association recently issued a report on "Arbitration Discovery in Domestic Commercial Cases.

Has Economic Uncertainty Expanded Reach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?
Aug 10: In today's uncertain economic times, as foreign governments implement varying bailout strategies for previously private enterprises, the number of "foreign officials" for FCPA purposes has the potential to dramatically increase.

Ball in Your Court: All West
Aug 9: You need to know the capabilities and limits of the text extraction and indexing engines you deploy. Because if the index won't hold water, you're up a creek.

Sloppy Redaction: To Err Is Automated
Aug 7: Advances in technology can help the redaction process, but the move from paper to electronic records has made the issue more difficult.

Court Denies Motion for Sanctions for Failure to Suspend Automatic Overwriting of Backup Tapes Absent Showing of Bad Faith
Aug 7: Defendant Thermal Engineering Construction Services, Inc. (“TEI”) moved for spoliation sanctions alleging that plaintiff failed to adopt a proper litigation hold procedure which resulted in the automatic deletion of email and other electronically stored information (“ESI”) from plaintiff’s backup tapes.

EDD Showcase: Strange Times
Aug 1: A quick walk through of some of the key results of the seventh annual Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey.

Six More Keys to Better Searching
Jul 29: The next six steps in fashioning more effective, efficient, and defensible queries.

What's German for 'Data Security'?
Jul 24: Conflicting laws complicate info safety, but noncompliance can be costly.

Searching for the Definitive "Search" Tool
Jul 23: Do you have a definite answer on what is an absolutely defensible process for searching through a couple hundred thousand documents and producing all the relevant and responsive documents, without "false positives" or privilege documents?

The Trouble with Discovery of ESI Abroad
Jul 20: Although international discovery is not a new problem, global companies, the growth of international data infrastructures and the explosion of ESI will bring the issues of e-discovery to the forefront of international litigation.

A Closer Look at Calif. E-Discovery Law
Jul 17: Although the California e-discovery legislation largely follows the 2006 e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, it differs somewhat in its treatment of inaccessible information and in its safe harbor for lost information.

The Frustrations of E-Discovery
Jul 14: Without appropriate focus on the people and process aspects and application rationalisation, organisational success at mitigating legal risk will be limited.

FAQ: What is the impact of e-discovery law on IT operations?
Jul 13: The law and practice surrounding the legal obligations for handling e-discovery have continued to evolve.

The Stunning Impact of E-Discovery on IT
Jul 9: Since more than 95 percent of all information is electronic and it's estimated that upwards of 97 billion emails are sent each day, it is no wonder that every lawsuit has electronic evidence. All IT shops protect themselves from disaster with the knowledge that every computer will fail, but computer systems are not designed to provide easy access for lawyers and judges.

Stolen E-Mail Evidence?
Jul 9: You may be writing the verdict in your next lawsuit.

2009 Mid-Year Update on E-Discovery Cases
Jul 8: Sanctions Cases Double Over 2008; Courts Continue to Press for Cooperation; E-Discovery Trends in Criminal and Constitutional Law

Cloud Computing Brings New Legal Challenges
Jul 8: Given the explosive growth of cloud computing, it should be no surprise that it presents numerous legal issues for business. Two of the most significant are privacy concerns and the implications of cloud computing for pretrial discovery.

E-Discovery: California Gets Into the Act
Jul 7: Last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law California's Electronic Discovery Act. The governor had vetoed similar legislation last year, and this is the first time that California's discovery rules have been revised in a significant way in a couple of decades.

A Trans-Atlantic Look at E-Discovery
Jun 25: Vince Neicho lays out the differences between the U.S. and U.K. rules for E-Discovery.

Crafting a More Effective Keyword Search
Jun 24: Craig Ball lays out ten steps to help fashion more effective, efficient, and defensible queries.

Delaware Chancery Homes in on EDD
Jun 16: In a spate of recent rulings, the court signals that companies need to engage in early preservation of data.

E-Mail Fail
Jun 11: Survey shows most organizations still don’t treat e-mail as important business records.

Overzealous Lawyers Learn a Valuable e-Discovery Lesson
Jun 9: If the court feels the hours spent on production are excessively high, and that full compensation for such work would unreasonably inflate the total fee award, the court will decrease attorney fee requests.

International E-Discovery: Navigating the Maze
Jun 1: No consistent methodology exists for United States courts to evaluate whether discovery of ESI abroad is appropriate, and if so, the consequences for not complying with a discovery order.

Ease the Pain of E-Discovery
May 30: Companies are creating e-discovery teams led by legal and IT principals that set policies for data retention and preservation, oversee implementation of these policies, and handle e-discovery workrelated to specific legal cases.

Rule 34: A Cause for Confusion
Jan 16: The 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provided some clarity with respect to electronically stored information. However, Rule 34 remains muddled.

Failure to Confer on Production Leads to Shared Sanctions
Dec 29: Producer had responded to requestor’s first production request by producing hard copies, but indicating that electronic documents were still being collected.

Judge Establishes Search Protocol
Dec 10: The parties had previously agreed that plaintiff requestor’s forensic expert, Mr. Bond, could search producer’s servers, but the parties were unable to come up with an appropriate protocol.

New Poll Reveals Litigation Discovery Gap
Dec 9: Two years after new federal e-discovery rules, 30 percent of companies have no policies for preserving evidence for litigation discovery.

Rule 502 May Not Deliver Promised Cost Relief
Dec 3: The FRE Rule 502, enacted on Sept. 19, 2008, and its promotion as a cost-saving panacea have no doubt raised expectations among clients and courts alike.

Are Social Networking Sites Discoverable?
Nov 13: This article explores a social networking site user's right to privacy, an adversary's right to obtain information from that site and the admissibility of the information.

Metadata Presents an Ethical Dilemma
Nov 11: By producing an electronic document in discovery, you may breach the attorney-client privilege, according to an ethics opinion regarding metadata issued by the District of Columbia Bar.

A Reasonable Route to ESI Confidentiality
Oct 30: A recent decision in the Southern District of Indiana offers an economical, common-sense approach to confidentiality -- one that practitioners and courts alike should consider.

eDiscovery Drives Legal Costs Up
Sep 11: Out of the 1,400 lawyers surveyed, 87% said that electronic discovery is too costly and driving up the price of litigation.

Cost of Discovery a Driving Force in Settling Cases, Study Shows
Sep 9: The cost of litigation, particularly discovery, has become the driving force in settling cases, not the merits.

E-Discovery Amendments to California's Civil Discovery Act
Aug 21: The amendments included in AB 926 closely track several of the 2006 e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Court Denies Motion to Compel Production of Email from Backup Tapes
July 31: In this case, plaintiffs had requested that they be allowed to search the defendants' backup tapes in an attempt to discover whether other complaints were made to the district about the teacher who was at the center of the case.

Poor Search Methodology Can Waive Privilege
Jun 20: Above all, the opinion in Victor Stanley highlights the need for transparency and collaboration in the e-discovery process.

States That Have Enacted E-Discovery Rules
Jun 18: More and more states are adopting statutes and court rules addressing the discovery of electronically stored information — here is a current list.

DLA Piper Meets Five-Day EDD Challenge
Jun 6: Large law firm turns to its preferred vendor to manage a large data request in five days.

Maryland Law Firm Seeks Guidance
May 27: Maryland Law Firm Seeks Guidance on Whether Electronic Transmission of Data to Legal Process Outsourcing Company in India Waives Fourth Amendment Protections.

When E-Discovery Is Put to the Test
May 15: An influential federal district judge whose opinions on e-discovery are well respected may have set e-discovery on a path toward its most searching scrutiny yet.

Court Sets Protocol for Forensic Inspection of Plaintiff's Computer Systems
May 5: Ferron v. Search Cactus, L.L.C., 2008 WL 1902499 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 28, 2008) In this case, plaintiff (a lawyer) brought claims under the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act based upon emails he received.

Calif. Judicial Council to Weigh New E-Discovery Rules
Apr 29: The Judicial Council will consider new rules for electronic discovery in California, a long-awaited package that's been received warily by the high-tech industry.

E-Discovery Keeps an Eye on the Job
Apr 25: This article focuses on the unique aspects of electronic discovery in employment-related litigation.

Additional Information Needed Before Court Will Order Production of Email
Apr 11: In this case, the plaintiff moved to compel the production of email between and among the parties, challenging the adequacy of defendants’ production.

The Sedona Conference Commentary on ESI Evidence & Admissibility
Apr 07: During the last decade, culminating with the adoption of significant amendments to the FRCP, the legal community has expended significant energy and focus on electronic data.

Court Sets Protocol for Production and Review of Text Messages
Mar 31: Flagg v. City of Detroit, 2008 WL 787061 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 20, 2008) — Plaintiff in this case is the minor son of a murder victim, whose murder remains unsolved.

School Districts Wrestle with e-Discovery
Mar 24: School districts face a mandate to keep electronic information accessible for e-discovery and public records searches...

District Court Lifts Sanctions Against Six Qualcomm Attorneys
Mar 7: On March 5, 2008, District Judge Rudi M. Brewster issued his Order Remanding in Part Order of Magistrate Court re Motion for Sanctions Dated 1/7/08.

Smaller E-Discovery Costs for Small Biz
Mar 7: Although the FRCP present a new set of challenges for small companies, the good news is that developing and implementing an e-discovery strategy does not always have to be an expensive project.

The NFL Destroyed the Tapes But Hasn't Escaped the Sack.
Mar 3: In the game of football, the greatest quarterbacks share some common traits. Perhaps chief among them is an uncanny ability to anticipate the blitz.

Defense Counsel's Modification of Stipulated Privilege Screening Process Results in Additional Expert Costs and Over-Exclusion of Email
Feb 26: Henry v. Quicken Loans, Inc., 2008 WL 474127 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 15, 2008) This Fair Labor Standards Act overtime collective action was brought on behalf of approximately 422 plaintiffs who worked as "loan consultants" for defendants.

Updated List: Local Rules, Forms and Guidelines of United States District Courts Addressing E-Discovery Issues
Feb 11: At least 38 United States District Courts now require compliance with special local rules, forms or guidelines addressing the discovery of electronically stored information.

A New XML Standard Promises To Smooth Out The E-Discovery Process.
Jan 28: In late October EDRM, a group of e-discovery thought leaders that includes vendors, consultants and legal departments, released a new standard that may revolutionize the transfer of data from one application to another during discovery.

List of States Actively Considering the Adoption of Special E-Discovery Court Rules
Jan 22: Here is a current list of those states that have published proposed rules amendments for public comment, with links to the relevant materials.

White House Missing CIA, Iraq E-Mails
Jan 19: Apparent gaps in White House e-mail archives coincide with dates in late 2003 and early 2004 when the administration was struggling to deal with the CIA leak investigation.

Mining E-Discovery Stateside
Jan 18: Not all 50 states are in sync with the EDD amendments to the FRCP; here's how to cope

Qualcomm and Attorneys Sanctioned for "Monumental" E-Discovery Violations
Jan 10: In yet another warning about the pitfalls of e-discovery, a judge from the Southern District of California has sanctioned Qualcomm

Sullivan & Cromwell Suit Against Vendor Highlights Problems With E-Discovery

Jan 7: Other lawyers predict similar disputes in future between law firms and EDD companies