Discovery Resources

On June 29, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California’s Electronic Discovery Act into law.  Because the Act contains an urgency provision, it is effective as of June 29, 2009.

Here’s the Electronic Discovery Act in its entirety.

…. Tip of the hat to Michael J. Eng at the Electronic Discovery Navigator

Abbott’s motion states:

“DOJ kept the lawsuit under seal for more than eleven years, conducting one-sided discovery against Abbott, but did nothing to preserve evidence in its own possession or control. “ Continue reading….

by Christina Cidade, Technical Sales Manager, Fios, Inc.

I have been hearing some interesting discussions recently regarding instant messaging (”IM”) and whether or not a corporation has an obligation to preserve these types of communications.  So what are all the cool companies doing?

Once a corporation establishes that IM is appropriate and permissible for business purposes, they must determine whether (and/or how) they want control over IM.  There are two different types of IM platforms — well, three if you count the financial industry, which is so cool it has its own toys made specifically for it - e.g., Bloomberg Messaging, Reuters Messaging and IMtrader.   It even has its own rules regarding continue…

Kim Newman is a partner in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC office and a member of the Business Trial and Litigation and Electronic Discovery and Document Retention Practices recently wrote about sanctions that were imposed on outside counsel for Plaintiff Bray & Gillespie Management LLC for a “pattern of withholding and concealing information concerning discoverable material” from both the Court and opposing counsel.

The problems began with a failure to Object to the Request for ESI in Native Format and then failure to produce it. Continue reading….

To regain a class’s focus on a certain subject that they may not have been studying hard enough otherwise, teachers will often use a Pop Quiz.  Ronald Hedges, former United States Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey, is a believer in the pop quiz as well.  In the most recent New Jersey Law Journal, Hedges writes:

“Time for a pop quiz. Can you name the most important of the so-called “e-discovery” amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure adopted in 2006? Candidates include, among others, Rule 26(b)(2)(B), which introduced the concept of “not reasonably accessible” electronically stored information; Rule 26(b)(5)(B), which established a uniform procedure among the United continue…

RAND Europe led an international research team to review of the strengths and weaknesses of the European Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and proposed avenues for improvement.

The Directive can be regarded as a unique legal instrument in how it supports the exercise of a right to privacy and rules for personal data protection. It is regarded in many quarters as a reference model for personal data protection in Europe and beyond. Although the flexibility of the Directive helps it to remain current, its effectiveness is undermined by the complexity of the cultural and national differences across which it must operate.

“The goal of Directive is to remain valid in the face of new continue…

“The use of good project management skills during an e-discovery process can help you navigate your way through a mass of information.” This article, which discusses the role of Project Management in  e-discovery is from Legalweek.com, an online journal which is dedicated exclusively to commercial lawyers in the UK and major international jurisdictions.  The authors even reference The Ramones, which certainly adds flair to an article about eDisclosure, as it’s known there.
Read more here

“You know things are bad when the lawyers withdraw.”  So begins an interesting post from Steven Puiszis, Editor-in-Chief of the Practical Ediscovery blog. He continues, “In MeccaTech (MTI), the magistrate judge observed: “Misconduct of this magnitude is a rare occurrence.” It was determined through discovery that one of the defendants employed a consultant to intentionally erase items from his computer before he left MTI’s employment in attempt to shield his activities from discovery.” Read more about ediscovery going very badly here

PCWorld has a different take on addressing the e-discovery challenge – “It can be a storage nightmare: Given expanding regulatory requirements and the key role that electronic records now play in lawsuits, some enterprises are saving every bit of data they have, just to be safe. As a gauge of storage demand, IDC says the total amount of disk storage shipped last year grew 40.5 percent from 2007. “ 

Continue reading

This blog post from the Dr. InfoSec blog (Seeking to diagnose and treat everyday information security problems) calls out the point made by Gartner Analyst, Debra Logan, that organizations should consider a specific, enforcable, Twitter e-discovery policy.  Continue reading….