Our Insights on eDiscovery

Changes to Federal eDiscovery Rules Could Be Coming Within a Year – eDiscovery Trends

April 22, 2013

As reported by Henry Kelston in Law Technology News (Are We on the Cusp of Major Changes to E-Discovery Rules?), another major set of amendments to the discovery provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is getting closer and could be adopted within the year. The United States Courts’ Advisory Committee on Civil Rules voted last week to send a slate of proposed amendments up the rulemaking chain, to its Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, with a recommendation that the proposals be approved for publication and public comment later this year.

Performing an Example Copy with Robocopy – eDiscovery Best Practices

April 19, 2013

Yesterday, we discussed the benefits of Robocopy, how to access it via the command line prompt (if you have Windows Vista or later) and how to get it (if you don’t). Today, we’re going to perform an example copy and take a look at the results.

Want to Save Your Metadata in Collection? Robocop(y) to the Rescue! – eDiscovery Best Practices

April 18, 2013

Last week, we discussed the pitfalls of using drag and drop for collecting files for eDiscovery and illustrated an example using a blog post that I wrote about a month ago in a Word document for the post Five Common Myths About Predictive Coding. If you followed the steps along with one of your own files, you noticed that the resulting file appeared to have been modified before it was created, which reflects spoliation of the metadata during the copy process. I mentioned that there are better, more forensically sound, free methods for collecting data. One such method is Robocopy.

Plaintiff Receives Adverse Inference Sanction for Deleting Facebook Profile – eDiscovery Case Law

April 16, 2013

In Gatto v. United Air Lines, Inc., New Jersey Magistrate Judge Steven C. Mannion issued an adverse inference sanction against the plaintiff for failing to preserve data due to the fact that he either, deactivated his Facebook account and allowed the account to be automatically deleted after fourteen days, or that he deleted the account outright. Judge Mannion denied the defendant’s request for attorney’s fees and costs for “the time and effort it was forced to expend in an effort to obtain discovery”.

Appeals Court Upholds Decision Not to Recuse Judge Peck in Da Silva Moore – eDiscovery Case Law

April 15, 2013

As reported by IT-Lex, the Second Circuit of the US Court of Appeals rejected the Plaintiff’s request for a writ of mandamus recusing Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck from Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe SA.

Pop Quiz: Is it Possible for a File to be Modified Before it is Created? – eDiscovery Best Practices

April 12, 2013

Sounds like a trick question, doesn’t it? The answer is yes. And, collecting files in a forensically unsound manner can be a drag…and drop.

Yet Another Request for Facebook Data Denied – eDiscovery Case Law

April 11, 2013

In Potts v. Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., Tennessee District Judge William Haynes ruled that the defendant “lacks any evidentiary showing that Plaintiff’s public Facebook profile contains information that will reasonably lead to the discovery of admissible evidence” and, therefore, denied the defendant’s motion to compel regarding same.

The Hammer Comes Down on Losing Plaintiff for Spoliation of Data – eDiscovery Case Law

April 9, 2013

Apparently, having your case dismissed isn’t the worst that can happen to you for egregious spoliation of data. You can also be ordered to pay the winning party over $200,000 in fees and costs for the case. In Taylor v. Mitre Corp., Virginia District Judge Liam O’Grady partially granted the prevailing defendant’s motion for fees and costs after the court dismissed the case due to the plaintiff’s spoliation of evidence.

Is it Time to Ditch the Per Hour Model for Document Review? – eDiscovery Trends

April 8, 2013

Some of the recent stories involving alleged overbilling by law firms for legal work – much of it for document review – begs the question whether it’s time to ditch the per hour model for document review in place of a per document rate for review?

Court Says Scanning Documents to TIFF and Loading into Database is Taxable – eDiscovery Case Law

April 5, 2013

In Amana Society, Inc. v. Excel Engineering, Inc., Iowa District Judge Linda R. Reade found that “scanning [to TIFF format] for Summation purposes qualifies as ‘making copies of materials’ and that these costs are recoverable”.