Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
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[…]
Read more
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[…]
Read more
Problems do not improve by not talking about them. In an employment discrimination case, the Defendants sought production of several exhibits from the Plaintiff. After stating she would produce them in a few days, the Defendants did not hear back from the Plaintiff despite both formal and informal requests. Mitchell[…]
Read more
Discovery productions are a mix of art and science. I am of the mindset that parties should bring a motion to compel when a production is inadequate, not over what search terms to use. This is one of those cases where the parties fought over how to search for ESI.[…]
Read moreI have met lawyers who have a crazy idea: They HAVE to read EVERY email, document, Excel file, video, and every other bit of ESI produced in discovery. That position is wrong. Lawyers have a duty of competency to their client, and candor to the court, to look at what[…]
Read moreI prepared a guest post for Everlaw’s blog on an attorney’s ethical duty to follow a client’s instruction to manually review documents prior to production. Is expert testimony required to show a lawyer breached their standard of care or is this issue one a jury can decide on their own?[…]
Read moreJudge William Orrick summed up a basic truth of eDiscovery: In the age of electronically-stored information (“ESI”), production of all relevant, not privileged and reasonably accessible documents in a company’s custody and control is easier said than done. Banas v. Volcano Corp., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144139, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Oct.[…]
Read moreI am gonna to hit the brakes, he’ll fly right by me. Maverick, Top Gun You’re gonna do what? Merlin, Top Gun Attorneys feel compelled by their duty of competency to their clients to have eyes on every document that might be privileged. Given cases such as J-M Manufacturing it[…]
Read moreI had the good fortune to organize a seminar on responding to electronic discovery requests for the Santa Clara County Bar Association’s Civil Practice Committee on February 27, 2013. However, this seminar was different from other eDiscovery CLE’s, because the attendees spent a full hour conducting searches for responsive ESI[…]
Read moreNothing says Merry Christmas like winning eDiscovery costs. One party was able to get over half the gifts on their Christmas List from the Court as taxable costs. The Defendants submitted eDiscovery costs over $40,000, which was nearly two-thirds of the Defendant’s bill of costs. A service provider made up[…]
Read more