By Nima Ashtyani
Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc., 2008 WL 2221841 (D. Md. May 29, 2008)
Employee Implicated: Owner/Executive
eLesson Learned: Use metadata to organize electronic information. Something as simplistic as a pre-set list of keywords to denote what is discoverable and what is privileged is a very good place to start.
A lawsuit can occur at any time to anyone. If your company has a suit brought against it, will it be ready to provide everything necessary if the case goes to discovery?
Have you ever heard of a company called Creative Pipe, Inc., (hereafter referred to as CPI)? Chances are you haven’t, but you will be more familiar with them after reading this, as they have been very helpful for showing the “don’ts” of e-discovery.
Metadata is data that describes other data. Think of this like a table of contents in a book. This is probably the broadest and most important aspect, an area of expertise that should be learned by the IT department with guidance from legal counsel.
During CPI’s case, they were asked to produce e-documents and an unnecessary and unfortunate fiasco followed. Even with computer forensics experts, problems still arose and documents that CPI deemed to be privileged were produced accidentally. Something as simplistic as a list of keywords to denote what is discoverable and what is privileged is a very good place to start.
CPI, though given extra time, was still unable to fully disseminate the documents, even with a keyword list, because the experts created the keyword list as an ad hoc project for this case and mistakes were made. What can we learn from these mistakes?
Know what materials you are dealing with, and label them as such. CPI had computer forensic experts create a keyword list for all of the text-searchable documents to determine what would be considered discoverable. CPI did no sampling though. It would be in the best interest of your company to have a pre-set list of keywords. Distributing this list to your employees would allow them to carefully craft their documents.
As stated above, a keyword list is primarily for text-searchable documents. It is for this reason that metadata is equally necessary for non-searchable documents.
The non-searchable documents could be sorted in such a way as the hard documents. Held on discs or hard drives, they can be sorted just as their paper counterparts.
Metadata is a general term for a very intricate process. Although it may seem, and in some cases probably is, a very difficult and daunting organization process, if the day ever comes that you are put in a position like CPI and have to produce documents, the strain of putting everything in an organized manner will be far less than the strain of explaining to a judge why things are out of order and run the risk of angering him, which is always the biggest mistake.
Nima is a first year student at Seton Hall University School of Law and graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics.
e-Lessons Learned Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed by bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, are provided solely for informational purposes, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of e-Lessons Learned. We are not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied herein and are not liable for any errors or omissions in this information, or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. By using this blog site you understand that there is no attorney client relationship and it should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state.
Filed under e-Lessons Learned.