Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
Document review can be a complex process with high risk of extensive motion practice if there is a mistake. Way back in my days in law school, document productions were not discussed in Civil Procedure. However, just as understanding personal jurisdiction, service of process, and venue, are the nuts of[…]
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It is a good practice to state the form of production of production in the request for production. Consider the following words of wisdom: Both Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) and this Court’s January 16, 2018 Order Setting Rule 16 Conference (ECF No. 9) required the parties discuss during[…]
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There are some big “no-no’s” in civil litigation. Printing ESI before scanning it as a few PDFs totalling 8,000 pages for production is one of them. This case had that bad life choice plus a few more. The Form of Production This is a case with multiple defendants getting into[…]
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Two ways to improve discovery productions is to clearly state the form of production in the discovery request and to have a meaningful meet and confer about producing discovery. Failing to do either can result in motion practice. In this dispute, the requesting party claimed the electronically stored information (ESI)[…]
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Records management can be extremely complex. So can the preservation of evidence and responding to discovery requests. In a case involving Fair Credit Report Act claims, Equifax objected to discovery requests for consumer dispute information. The Producing Party claimed that the requested information was not in a “readily accessible format,[…]
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Social media is just another form of electronically stored information. Attorneys are getting very good at making proportional requests for relevant social media in a lawsuit. Judges also know how to rein in overly broad social media requests for production. In a case with allegations that a tractor trailer negligently[…]
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Proportionality analysis can yield surprising results. In a case involving the alleged breach of a patent license agreement over test cups used to screen urine for illegal drugs, the plaintiff sought email from two custodians knowledgeable of the Defendant’s marketing/sales and design/use of test cups. Rembrandt Diagnostics, LP v. Innovacon,[…]
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Agreements to produce ESI solely from search term hits suffers a very fatal flaw: the results are not guaranteed to be relevant to the case. The parties who provided payment mechanisms for drivers of rental cars to pay highway tolls agreed to produce ESI responsive to the following search terms: Smartphone[…]
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There are form of production cases that make me mutter, “Say what?” This is one of those cases. In the present case, the parties argued whether they needed to produce ESI as native files or PDFs. The Defendant claimed it would cost a total of $3,000 more to produce ESI[…]
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Responding to requests for production requires the producing party to have a plan for document review. What defines that an email message is responsive? What are the privileges in the case? What information needs to be redacted for production? How are privileges asserted in a privilege log? Lawyers who do[…]
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