In November 2022, the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility of the American Bar Association (ABA) published a formal opinion advising attorneys to refrain generally from including clients on emails and texts sent to opposing counsel. At the same time, the Committee noted that responding to group communications, that included opposing counsel and his/her
Modern day litigation involves an ever-increasing volume of data. In turn, the ubiquitous nature of data has caused significant financial strains on legal teams. Because of the financial concerns attendant to eDiscovery, it is imperative that today’s legal teams are conversant in defensible strategies to control legal costs without compromising the ability to understand their
In an earlier post, we discussed how District Court Judge Iain Johnston noted that “at times, ESI discovery can be complex,” but the “same basic discovery principles that worked for the Flintstones still work for the Jetsons.” Indeed, ESI discovery, just like its paper predecessor, involves five fundamental steps: (1) identification, (2) preservation, (3)
For anyone with a few hours to spare, I highly recommend reading the various decisions authored by District Court Judge Iain Johnston of the Northern District of Illinois relating to discovery failures in the DR Distributors case. DR Distributors, LLC v. Century 21 Smoking, Inc., 513 F. Supp.3d 839 (ND Ill., 2021). Indeed, the case
Blankenship v. Fox News Network, LLC, Civil Action No. 2:19-cv-00236, at *2 (S.D.W. Va. June 14, 2021) serves as a lesson in how not to conduct discovery. In this matter, there were multiple defendants: one of which demanded Plaintiff produce ESI in TIFF image format with load files; and others of whom demanded the
“Forensic examinations of computers and cell phones are generally considered a drastic discovery measure” because they are intrusive in nature. Stewart v First Transit Inc., Civ No. 18-3768, (ED PA Sept 3, 2019). Indeed, the inspecting or testing of electronic information systems implicate issues of confidentiality and privacy (see, e.g., Rule 34(a) Advisory Committee
While document collection, analytics, and review are crucial—and much discussed—phases of e-Discovery, document processing is similarly important and can have lasting consequences for any review of electronic data. Document processing consists of taking the raw data collected from its source and transforming that into a readable format that can be used and manipulated by attorneys.
As the below DOMO infographic suggests, people are reliant upon the worldwide web at activity levels that are difficult to comprehend. Consider, for example, that people send 16 million text messages every minute! Or that 2.4 million snaps are sent every 60 seconds! Or, that the internet reaches approximately 5 billion people (i.e., 63%
A case out of the District of Minnesota recently addressed whether a party can be compelled to produce text messages from an employee’s personal mobile device when that party has a bring your own device (BYOD) policy in place. See In re Pork Antitrust Litig., 2022 WL 972401 (D. Minn. 2022).
This class
In Abbott Laboratories, et al., v Adelphia Supply USA (EDNY May 2, 2019), Plaintiffs filed a motion for case-ending sanctions against defendants H&H Wholesale Services, Inc., Howard Goldman, and Lori Goldman (for purposes of this blog, “Defendants”). The parties submitted briefing and Magistrate Judge Bloom held oral argument. On May 2, 2019, Judge Bloom