eDiscovery Daily Blog

• December 12, 2014

Over a year ago, we covered an article in The American Lawyer by Lisa Holton about five eDiscovery trailblazing judges.  In a few days, one of those judges, John Facciola, U.S. Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is retiring.

Judge Facciola’s key eDiscovery opinions include: Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington v. Executive Office of the President (which forced preservation of digital media in government); United States v. O’Keefe (which set guidelines for keyword challenges); and Equity Analytics v. Lundin (which set guidelines for challenges or defenses of search methodology).

One of my favorite case rulings is one that we covered of his – Taydon v. Greyhound Lines, Inc. – where he laid down the law to the parties regarding the cooperation he expects moving forward on eDiscovery issues:

“III. High Noon

As explained at the discovery status hearing held on April 30, 2012, there is a new sheriff in town—not Gary Cooper, but me. The filing of forty-page discovery motions accompanied by thousands of pages of exhibits will cease and will now be replaced by a new regimen in which the parties, without surrendering any of their rights, must make genuine efforts to engage in the cooperative discovery regimen contemplated by the Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation…First, the parties will meet and confer in person in a genuine, good faith effort to plan the rest of discovery. They shall discuss and agree, if they can, on issues such as the format of any additional productions, the timing and staging of all depositions, the submission to each other of discovery reports, and the scope and timing of any Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) depositions. The parties will then jointly submit their discovery plan for my approval. I commit myself to work with them in resolving any disagreements, whether they arise initially or during discovery. To that end, I will schedule a telephonic status conference every two weeks in which I will ask the parties about their progress (or lack thereof) and try to resolve any disagreements they have.”

Judge Facciola has been an instrumental participant in the Sedona Conference, including the Cooperation Proclamation mentioned above (to download a copy of the Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation, click here).  He was also one of the “stars” in the documentary The Decade of Discovery, with several quotes (wearing his trademark bow-tie, of course!).

Here are some other recent articles regarding Judge Facciola worth checking out!

• ACEDS: On eve of retirement, leading e-discovery judge asks, Why, oh, why don’t lawyers know this stuff? (subscription required)
• Bow Tie Law’s Blog: Thank You Judge John Facciola
• Law Technology News: 6 Things You Don’t Know About Judge Facciola

So, what do you think?  Do you have any stories or references to other articles about Judge Facciola that you’d like to share with our readers?  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.