eDiscovery Daily Blog
eDiscovery Trends: North Carolina Adopts eDiscovery Rules
Earlier this year, Wisconsin and Connecticut adopted new eDiscovery rules. On October 1, changes to the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure will go into effect to provide guidelines for handling eDiscovery in North Carolina state courts. The rule changes, for the most part, follow the same guidelines as the 2006 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Here is a summary of the changes:
- Discovery Plans: Parties to a case now have the right to require the development of a discovery plan, to manage all discovery in the case (not just eDiscovery). The parties are required to meet to discuss the possibility of settlement and the preparation of a discovery plan to address discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”), production of ESI, discovery limitations or phasing, and the deadline for completion of all discovery.
- Required Production of Metadata: The definition of ESI now expressly includes the metadata for date sent, date received, author, and recipients. The definition of ESI does not include other metadata unless the parties agree or the court so orders. This is a significant departure from the Federal Rules.
- Privilege Logs: Privilege logs describing privileged material withheld from discovery are now required.
- Inadvertent Disclosure: The new rules protect inadvertent disclosure of privileged information during discovery.
- Sanctions: The amendments adopt a safe harbor provision which mirrors the federal rule, protecting a party from sanctions for losing ESI “as a result of routine, good faith operation of an electronic information system.”
- Subpoenas: Rule 45 of the NC Rules of Civil Procedure has been revised to provide that parties producing documents need not produce the same ESI in more than one format, or provide ESI that is not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or costs.
So, what do you think? Are you aware of the “state” of eDiscovery rules in your state? Please share any comments you might have or if you'd like to know more about a particular topic.