Discovery Resources

California Lawyer this month has a interesting article by Perry L. Segal, an IT executive turned e-discovery attorney and consultant. “Remember the old adage “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? In the e-discovery universe, you’ll need several pounds. The California Electronic Discovery Act has been in place for about three months, and I’ve been fielding a lot of inquiries. The number one question is: “How much is all this going to cost?”

Answer: How much do you have?”

Continue reading…

An especially interesting ruling, especially for fraud cases…”I think the best way to understand today’s remarkable Ninth Circuit Fourth Amendment decision in United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing is that the Ninth Circuit did its best to end the plain view exception for computer searches without formally ending plain view for computer searches.”  Continue reading….

Oliver Marks, over at ZDNet Collaboration 2.0, begins his recent post by stating that ediscovery and compliance are complicating the goal of enterprise collaboration. His article includes this gem: “CIO stands for ‘Career Is Over’ in some C suite circles because it’s so easy to be left holding the baby when some unforeseen legal consequence of compliance or legal action means finding someone to blame.” Continue reading..

Arlen Specter (D-Pa) has proposed a return to prior pleading standards for civil lawsuits. This certainly could make for an interesting discussion on liberal pleading standards v. reasonable notice to defendant and excessive preservation requirements. Continue reading….

In a case related to the continuing debate involving the ability of employees to use their employer’s e-mail systems for union-related activities, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a portion of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) landmark decision in the Register-Guard Newspaper case (Eugene, Oregon) and concluded that the paper unlawfully discriminated against an employee for sending three e-mails to coworkers that discussed union matters. Continue reading….

Not every judge has the experiences of Magistrate Judges Facciola, Waxse, Grimm or Peck when it comes to electronically stored information.  Some District Court judges are just now issuing their first ESI opinions, over 2.5 years since the December 2006 Amendments. And for those who have not followed the news, California state judges will now be facing these issues since California enacted its own Civil Discovery Act addressing e-Discovery. Continue reading….

Tip of the hat to Bowtie Law Blogger Joshua Gilliland, Esq.

Industry thought leader Joshua Gilliland reviews this recent case where a criminal defendant was appealing his conviction on ineffective counsel and insufficient evidence to support his convictions challenged text message evidence. Continue reading…

It appears that the US District Court in Utah has found that the dearth of critical documentation from the Defendant’s productions were a significant contributor to the ruling.  Continue reading

by Aaron Cronan, Esq.,
Fios, Inc.

If you haven’t read the Bray & Gillespie v. Lexington case yet, you’re missing out on another example of the minefield e-discovery has created for litigators. In short, when a party asks for native files with intact metadata, stripped TIFFs are not an acceptable format. More important is the lesson not to make assumptions about how the data was collected and processed. Don’t tell the court or your opponent documents were printed and scanned unless you are certain that is the case. In the words of Judge Spaulding:

Berringer falsely told opposing counsel that B & G had caused all ofcontinue…

by James D. Palmatier is a Partner at Galbraith, Palmatier & Assoc., LL

Federal Rule of Evidence 502 (“Rule 502”) was signed into law in September 2008 .  According to the Advisory Committee notes to Rule 502, the Rule is designed to provide a predictable consequence for the unintentional disclosure of information protected by the attorney-client privilege and attorney work-product doctrines, and to reduce the costs associated with the discovery phase of litigation .  Rule 502, related case law and recent developments in tools used for electronic document management all point to several cost effective and prudent steps that may help avoid waiver.  To be successful in the discovery phasecontinue…