Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
Searches terms are the beginning of collecting and identifying electronically stored information. Far from perfect, search terms are the kickoff for document review. Yes, email threading, deduplication, clustering, predictive coding, and other forms of technology-assisted review enable lawyers to not plow through ESI like it is a football stadium full[…]
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Here is a simple question with a complex answer: Should search terms be used before or after predictive coding? That question was the subject of dueling motions in In re Allergan Biocell Textured Breast Implant Prods. Liab. Litig. (D.N.J. Oct. 25, 2022, No. MDL No. 2921) 2022 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 200790, at[…]
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If there is a maximum with electronically stored information, parties can fight over basic searches and production formats. These problems often could be reduced, if not eliminated, by retaining a computer forensic expert for collecting responsive data. This is one of those cases where the producing party also wanted to[…]
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Court orders are not known for giving out gold stars for handling electronic discovery. If there is a court order, it is usually because of a dispute. There is a big exception to this maxim: Electronic Discovery Case Management Orders. The parties in MSR Tr. v. Nationstar Mortg., filed a[…]
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Litigants frequently get into motion practice over search terms and not specific requests for production. Hastings v. Ford Motor Co., is one of those cases. The lawsuit involved the purchase of a 2013 Ford F-350 truck in Texas that allegedly had a defective engine. The underlying claims included warranty, fraud,[…]
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US Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave entered the fray on a dispute over search terms in a lawsuit with allegations of targeting employees to join a competitor exchanged proposed search terms to identify relevant information after discovery requests had been propounded. As one can expect when there is a motion to[…]
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Back in the Before Times, many of us used to fly places to see others at eDiscovery conferences. It might be another year before we can have in person events again. However, there is no shortage of case law with motion practice over searching ESI. In a dispute between the[…]
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I have never been a fan of Courts limiting how many search terms parties can use to find responsive ESI with no regard for how searches in review applications work. That is right up there with blaming high litigation costs because lawyers read. Limiting search terms also could limit the[…]
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Search terms are a lot like the game Codenames, where parties find themselves guessing terms of art to discover relevant electronically stored information. In a lawsuit between news-aggregator cell-phone apps, the Plaintiffs learned the Defendants referred to the Plaintiff’s app by the codename “Ajax.” The Defendants admitted there were 5,126[…]
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Litigants frequently battle over the production of search term hits, regardless of whether the “hits” are even relevant. This is absolutely the wrong beach to die on in a lawsuit. There is the brutal reality of the costs of motion practice for the client and judicial resources spent refereeing that[…]
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