I wrote this four years ago, and didn’t post it. With the Rules amendments effective in just over two months, I thought it timely:

Litigants have been ignoring e-discovery obligations with impunity for so long they’ve come to think of it as an entitlement.  Protected from predators, few have evolved.  But now that opponents and courts are waking to this failure, those who’ve failed to adapt are feeling exposed. They don’t like it, and they want protection.  They call it “proportionality.”

Proportionality sounds wholesome and virtuous, like “patriotism” or “faith;” but like those wholesome virtues, it’s sometimes the refuge of scoundrels.

The much-ballyhooed “rise in sanctions” is designed to mislead.   The solid metrics we have on spoliation sanctions prove that the risk of being sanctioned for negligent non-preservation remains miniscule (.00675% per a report from the Federal Judicial Center).  Put simply: In the United States, you are more likely to be hit by lightning than to be sanctioned for non-preservation of ESI. Continue reading →

With summer holidays and busy lives, I wouldn’t expect many to notice that BIYC has been quiet for six weeks while I’ve been working for a German client and living in Frankfurt.  I don’t know what it says about me that I have fallen head-over-heels for what many regard as the dullest city in Europe; but, I confess I find Frankfurt beautiful and captivating.  I’m sad to leave her behind as I return to the States in a few days.  I can’t say much about what I’ve been doing; but, it felt like a graduate course in corporate (and European) thinking respecting electronically stored information, privacy, regulation, litigation and the challenges faced by global business in identifying, preserving and producing ESI.

For all we tout “information governance” in articles and conferences, the global reality is that functional info gov is as rare as a good hair day for Donald Trump.  Even in industries where data retention is strictly regulated and extensive—like securities trading and banking—information implicated in discovery clumps and clusters hither and yon—some encrypted, some not—on legacy systems and media, as Notes mail and Exchange mail, within archives and hundreds of specialized applications and structured databases, as voice recordings on incompatible systems and loose documents on network shares.  But, these are mere technical hurdles, small next to the challenge of complying with internal corporate and IT policy, cross-border privacy laws and the risks and costly consequences of outsourcing IT.

All of this could be managed—even efficiently and cost-effectively—were it not for the knowledge gap that exists between the lawyers who demand and direct the work and those who do the actual preservation, collection and culling. Continue reading →

Yesterday’s post on the Digital Strata blog reported on a 2014 order of a U.S. District Court in Connecticut that applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Riley v. California, 573 U.S. ___, 134 S. Ct. 2473 (2014) to civil discovery.  I think the Court’s reliance on Riley is misplaced in the civil discovery context; not just because Riley involved state action, but because civil discovery affords a litigant greater protection from oppression and intrusion than that attendant to the search and seizure in Riley.  Continue reading →

Disagreements about scope and process in e-discovery shouldn’t split between plaintiffs’ and defendants’ interests. After all, everyone is a requesting and producing party, whether north or south of the “v.”  Yet, the reality is that most defense counsel see themselves as producing parties, and most plaintiffs’ counsel identify with requesting parties.  That unfortunate alignment poisons our ability to set aside allegiances and be officers of the Court mutually determined to find the most effective and efficient means to discover evidence illuminating the issues.

Cooperation in e-discovery is derided as naive in an adversarial system of justice, and “discovery about discovery” is vilified as a diversionary tactic, a modern take on the maxim, “if you can’t try the case, then try your opponent.” Counsel for responding parties are quick to note that no party is obliged to deliver a perfect production. They’re absolutely right.  Perfection is not the standard.  But, is a producing party entitled to fail before a requesting party may inquire into the scope and process of e-discovery?  Must we wait until the autopsy to question the care plan? Continue reading →

I did a free webcast today for OLP, billed as “Top Tips for Preservation.”  If you missed it, they will make it available to members online.  Although I spent much of my time addressing challenges unique to preservation of mobile devices like iPhones and tablets, I was faithful to the title and shared nine tips I termed “Preservation Platitudes.”  None break new ground, but I hope at least a few count as sensible advice:

One

Be Prepared to Preserve

READY: Have a preservation plan.
SET: Invest in preservation readiness.
GO: Do something.  Do it now.

You need to have an action plan at hand for any case that comes in.  There are sources of information and preservation obligations that cut across all matters and apply to those on both sides of the V.  If you wait until the case comes in to develop the framework of a defensible preservation plan, you subject the client to needless risk. Clients don’t pay us to learn on their nickel.  They pay us to know–or at least to know how to get started.

Preservation readiness means having strategies and resources to draw on, so as to be able to hit the ground running.  It might be training someone in IT to be competent in forensically sound imaging techniques and chain-of-custody documentation.  Or, it could be having established relationships with IT and service providers.  A professional knows who to call and has a sound sense of what it will cost.

Many failed preservation efforts come about because someone dithered.  They hoped that the case would settle.  They assumed it was someone else’s job.  They failed to act when action could have saved the day and lowered the cost considerably.  Do something.  Ideally, the right thing. Continue reading →

One e-discovery blog I never fail to read is Doug Austin’s eDiscoveryDaily.  It’s hard to come up with a post every day; yet, Doug makes it look easy.  Each post is a quick read with little editorializing; and, Doug faithfully includes a link to the opinion.  That last may seem a small thing; but, some bloggers don’t do it (or only share the full text of the decision with paying customers). There’s no substitute for reading the case.

Today, Doug posted on Harrell v. Pathmark, (USDC EDPA, February 26, 2015), where the Court dismisses the plaintiff’s slip-and-fall injury claim on summary judgment.  I don’t think the Court got it wrong on the merits; but, in weighing in, sua sponte, on the e-spoliation issue, I’m reminded of the maxim, “hard cases make bad law.”  Slip-and-fall cases must be some of the hardest cases around because the law often seems to lose its footing when it comes to the failure to retain video evidence in these disputes. Continue reading →