Our Insights on eDiscovery

Redactions Aren’t Always as Straightforward as You Think: eDiscovery Best Practices

October 5, 2015

On the surface, it may seem easy enough to redact a document during eDiscovery review to obscure confidential or privileged information. You may think that all you need to do is draw a black box over the affected text, but there’s actually a lot more to consider in order to ensure that you don’t inadvertently produce information that was intended to be redacted. Here are a some redaction failures and how to avoid them.

Defendant Compelled to Restore and Produce Emails from Backup Tapes: eDiscovery Case Law

October 2, 2015

In United States ex rel Guardiola v. Renown Health, Nevada Magistrate Judge Valerie P. Cooke concluded that emails contained on backup tapes held by the defendants was not reasonably inaccessible due to undue cost and, even if the emails were reasonably inaccessible due to undue burden or undue cost, “good cause supports their discoverability”. Also, after an analysis of cost-shifting factors found only one factor favored cost-shifting of the production of emails to the relator, Judge Cooke ordered the defendant to bear the cost of restoration and production.

When a Text File Doesn’t Match the Image or Native Excel File, What Do You Do?: eDiscovery Best Practices

October 1, 2015

Even when you’ve been in the business for 25+ years, you sometimes encounter situations you can’t explain (at least initially). Here is a story about a document that I encountered yesterday that initially didn’t make sense to me. Thankfully, I’m extremely curious and ultimately figured it out (with some help). See if it will be obvious to you.

This Study Says Two-Thirds of Law Firms Still Have No Staff Devoted to Information Security: eDiscovery Trends

September 30, 2015

Not surprisingly, a major “hot” topic at ILTACON earlier this month was cybersecurity. Stories about data hacks are abundant and you may not even know if the law firm holding your data has ever suffered a breach. A new study, introduced at ILTACON earlier this month, aims to shed light on security assessment practices of legal organizations in North America.

Despite Failure to Implement a Litigation Hold, Defendant Escapes Sanctions: eDiscovery Case Law

September 29, 2015

In Flanders v. Dzugan et. al., despite the fact that the defendant failed to implement a litigation hold, Pennsylvania District Judge Nora Barry Fischer denied the plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions alleging the defendants failed to preserve evidence relevant to the case, finding that the plaintiff “cannot show any evidence was actually lost or destroyed”, “cannot show that if evidence was lost or destroyed, it would have been beneficial to his case” and “[n]or can Plaintiff show bad faith”.

If You Ever Have to Compare RFP Vendors, EDRM Has a New Calculator for You: eDiscovery Best Practices

September 28, 2015

Let’s face it, comparing bids from different eDiscovery vendors on an “apples to apples” basis can be difficult as each vendor seems to have its own unique pricing structure. However, a new calculator from EDRM can help simplify the comparison process to identify the low cost provider.

You’re More Likely to Be Hit by Lightning Than to Be Sanctioned for Non-Preservation of ESI: eDiscovery Best Practices

September 25, 2015

When it comes to eDiscovery topics, eDiscovery expert (and frequent thought leader interviewee on this blog) Craig Ball doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind and confront the (oftentimes) brutal truth. In Craig’s latest post in his excellent Ball in Your Court blog, he does so in spades.

Legal Salaries on the Rise? That’s the Half of It: eDiscovery Trends

September 24, 2015

Robert Half’s 2016 Legal Salary Guide features salary ranges for more than 100 positions in the legal field and provides some other interesting statistics, as well. According to the Guide, average starting salaries for lawyers at law firms are expected to increase 3.5 percent in 2016. And, salaries for experienced litigation support and eDiscovery directors and managers are expected to rise even more than that.

Court Denies Motion for Sanctions Against Veterinary Hospital for Spoliation of ESI: eDiscovery Case Law

September 23, 2015

In Grove City Veterinary Service, LLC et. al. v. Charter Practices International, LLC, Oregon Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta concluded that the plaintiffs had not met their burden of showing they are entitled to sanctions for spoliation of evidence by deleting one of the veterinarian’s archived work emails.

Believe it or Not, Apple v. Samsung is Still Going Strong: eDiscovery Case Law

September 22, 2015

Remember, the Apple v. Samsung case? We covered this case so much last year that it had its own category in our four part annual case law review (where we covered 68 unique cases!). We took a break from covering it this year to focus on other cases where more significant eDiscovery rulings were taking place. Nonetheless, it appears that Samsung may, just may, finally have to pay some damages to Apple for patent infringement.