eDiscovery Daily Blog
Chances Are that Delaware Has Been as Busy as Any State in eDiscovery – eDiscovery Trends
In December of 2011, as previously reported in eDiscoveryDaily, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware revised the “Default Standard for Discovery, Including Discovery of Electronically Stored Information (ESI)” to reflect changes in technology and to address concerns of attorneys regarding the discovery of ESI. As of January 1, 2013, more changes are in effect in Delaware.
As announced in a press release on the Delaware State Courts web site, The Court of Chancery has amended its Rules regarding discovery, effective January 1, 2013. Rules 26, 30, 34 and 45 have been updated to account for modern discovery demands and will bring the Court’s rules in line with current practice. The amendments refer to discovery of “electronically stored information” (“ESI”) in addition to “documents” and “tangible things,” and explain how parties should respond to requests for ESI. These changes are consistent with similar amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 26(c) also was revised to make clear that an out-of-state non-party from whom discovery is sought may move for a protective order in this state. Thoughtfully, they used tracked changes to make it easy to see the revisions. 🙂
In addition to amendments to the Rules, the Court also expanded itsGuidelines for Practitioners, originally released in January 2012, to include guidelines regarding discovery. These guidelines explain the Court’s expectations regarding parties’ responsibility to confer early and often regarding discovery, including expectations and guidelines regarding:
- Electronic Discovery Procedures,
- Overall Scope of Discovery,
- Preferred Procedures for Collection and Review of Discoverable Material (including ESI),
- Privilege Assertion Process, and
- The Role of Delaware Counsel in the Discovery Process.
The Court also developed guidelines for expedited discovery in advance of a preliminary injunction hearing.
So, what do you think? Where does your state stand with regard to rules changes to support discovery of ESI? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.