kgates – Page 123 – Electronic Discovery Law

The Volume Problem of E-Discovery

Nov 18 2004

Article by Thomas F. Gleason and Patrick M. Connors published on Lexis Nexis Practice Area News
Let’s skip the obvious and unanswerable question — why anybody could believe there was joy in litigation in the first place — and ask what prompts this now common sentiment. Is there truly an explosion of electronic evidence, creating mind-numbing discovery and inspection sessions and costs threatening to swamp the financial viability of commercial litigation? The answer, in these writers’ opinions is yes, and the basic problem is the amount of “stuff” that computers create. Read more.

State-Specific E-Discovery Rules

Nov 02 2004

Several states, including Kansas, Delaware, Mississippi, and Texas have amended their Civil Rules to address electronic documents in discovery. New Jersey, Wyoming, and Arkansas have also adopted local rules.

The Sedona Conference

Nov 01 2004

The Sedona Conference(SM) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) research and educational institute, dedicated to the advanced study of law and policy in the areas of antitrust, intellectual property, and complex litigation. Since its founding in 1997, it has developed an international reputation as a balanced and forward-looking law and policy think tank that has and will continue to provide constructive contributions to the reasoned and just development of law and policy. The Sedona Guidelines and The Sedona Principles have come to have been known as the preeminent thought-leadership pieces in the field.

Ken Withers

Nov 01 2004

Ken Withers is a senior judicial education attorney with the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C., where he is responsible for developing educational programs for federal judges and Court-employed attorneys. These programs include electronic discovery, technology in the criminal justice system, and advanced uses of technology in the administration of justice. Ken is also heavily involved in the federal rules amendment process.

Lawyers for Civil Justice

Nov 01 2004

Created by defense trial lawyers and corporate counsel, Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ) is a national coalition supporting excellence, fairness and improvements within the civil justice system. It supports activities at both the state and national level designed to achieve reforms, which will ensure balance in the civil justice system. Greater predictability in damage awards, streamlining the discovery process, and improving the management of litigation and scarce judicial resources are all long range goals of LCJ. Read More

Socha Consulting LLC

Oct 31 2004

As an e-discovery special master and expert witness, George Socha tracks e-discovery happenings, articles, and books and provides technology vendor information through his website, sochaconsulting.com. George is also a researcher and frequent speaker on the subject of electronic discovery.

U.S. Courts Website

Oct 31 2004

The U.S. Courts website is a great place view postings and make comments to the proposed amendments of the rules to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regarding electronic discovery.

Electronic Discovery for Corporate Counsel

Oct 29 2004

November 19, 2004, San Francisco
December 17, 2004, New York City

This bi-coastal program, developed through a joint effort between Preston Gates, Microsoft��and the Practising Law Institute (PLI,) is designed specifically for in-house counsel and other attorneys involved in advising organizations on electronic discovery and document retention issues. Backup tapes, evolving case law, computer forensics, and ethics rules in email are just a portion of the subjects to be covered by a daylong series of speakers and interactive panels.

Key focus areas include:

Formulating retention/destruction policies and implementing the duty to preserve
New discovery frontiers: instant messaging and voicemail
Computer forensics: When you need it; when you don’t
Update on newly revised E-Discovery court rules
Creating defensible privilege claims
Ethics: Resolving conflicts related to email

Public Comment Period Begins for Federal Civil Rules Proposals

Oct 29 2004

On August 10, 2004, the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure approved for publication and public comment several proposed amendments to the Federal Civil Rules that specifically address electronic discovery.

The public now has until February 15, 2005 to comment to the Secretary to the Standing Committee regarding the proposed amendments. In addition, public hearings will be held at various dates prior to the February 15 deadline, allowing comments to be given via public testimony. The earliest the proposed rules may go into effect is December 1, 2006. For more information on the amendment process and the public comment period, please click here.

Advisory Committee Recommends New Rules for Electronic Discovery

Oct 28 2004

In April 2004, the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules submitted to the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure several proposed amendments to the Federal Civil Rules specifically addressing the unique challenges of electronic discovery, recommending that the Standing Committee publish these proposals for comment in August 2004. The proposed rules mark the culmination of several years of work by the Advisory Committee and its Discovery Subcommittee examining the issue of whether and how the civil rules should be amended to specifically address electronic discovery issues.

Author - kgates