Discovery Resources

By Mary Mack, Corporate Technology Counsel, Fios.

Social media is emerging as a cottage industry for electronic evidence.  It is now playfully referred to as an electronic “permanent record” in this era of Wikileaks.

“It just makes for a beautiful exhibit, and there’s no longer any question about what was said,” says Cassandra Ferrannini, an employment law attorney with the Sacramento law firm Downey Brand. Conversations are displayed complete with date and timestamps.  Some conversational snippets show up in context, others out of context.

Labor and employment attorneys are aggressively using Facebook and other social media outlets.  All areas of litigation and investigation are using social media to find and vet witnesses, for continue…

Dan Winslow and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution just released the model language to reduce the costs of civil litigation at the beginning of a business arrangement.

Rather than call it a Litigation PreNup, the designation is now Economical Litigation Agreement.

After I discussed the Litigation PreNup with Al Driver at Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, many have asked where to get a sample. Here is a link to Dan talking with Al about the promise of the PreNup.

Get your Economical Litigation Agreement or Litigation PreNup here.

by Mary Mack, Corporate Technology Counsel, Fios

Ralph Losey, Brett Anders (both of Jackson Lewis, the national workplace  law firm) and I will finish our discussion of the hot cases of last quarter on Wednesday, August 4, 2010.  Register here.

With an embarrassment of riches of cases to delve into, it was not surprising that we have a couple left over.

We’ll be talking about the Crispin case (Crispin v. Christian Audigier, Inc., 2010 WL 2293238 (C.D. Cal. May 26, 2010)).  This case has the SCA (Stored Communications Act), Facebook, and the balancing act between what is public and what is private.

Bray and Gillespie, the case that eclipses Qualcomm as the most exciting saga of ediscovery mishaps and sanctions, is continue…

Quon – Text Messages at Work

By Mary Mack, Esq., Corporate Technology Counsel, Fios, Inc.

I have no doubt Ralph Losey will take issue with my assessment of the recent Quon case. He and I, along with Brett Anders, will include Quon in a lively Case Law Update. Register here.

The Supreme Court pleasantly surprised worried employers in Quon  (City of Ontario, California, et al. v Quon et al., —S. Ct. —-, 2101 WL 2400087 [June 17, 2010]).The outcome of the case was as favorable to employers as it could possibly be. Even though the employer in the case is a government entity, the Court made it clear that Quon applies to private employers continue…

The ever alert Ralph Losey posted a note about another amendment to the Pension Committee decision by Judge Shira Scheindlin:

At page 10, lines 7-10 replace <By contrast, the failure to obtain records from all employees (some of whom may have had only a passing encounter with the issued in the litigation), as opposed to key players, likely constitutes negligence as opposed to a higher degree of culpability.> with <By contrast, the failure to obtain records from all those employees who had any involvement with the issues raised in the litigation or anticipated litigation, as opposed to key players, could constitute negligence.>.

Judge Scheindlin’s last amendment was to correct language indicating all backup tapes should be continue…