Electronic Discovery Navigator

Hammurabi’s eDiscovery Codes Unearthed by CaseCentral

Hammurabi's Codes of eDiscovery:

   "1. If a lawyer or judge shall evaluate the efficacy of keyword or concept search terms without the aid of expert testimony:
      Punishment:  Accused shall allow 50 unchallenged search terms.

   2.  If a representative of IT or his master should shackle counsel by making eDiscovery dependent upon long term infrastructure upgrades:
      Punishment: An IT representative shall be put to death.

   3. If a lawyer pursues discovery to make the cost for his or her adversary so great that the case settles to avoid the transaction costs
      Punishment: The accused shall pay one gold mina and have his laptop destroyed.

   4. If a technical representative shall fail to adequately implement a document hold policy in the face of pending litigation:
      Punishment: The representative shall be imprisoned in place until the rising of the moon of LegalTech.

   5. If outside counsel shall fail to cull massive ESI volumes prior to expensive review:
      Punishment: He shall pay the client 5 shekels of silver per 1,000 documents not culled."

Happy April 1st!

More here.

(Thanks Terry!)

Schwarzenegger's Veto: A Raw Deal for E-Discovery?

Schwarzenegger's Veto: A Raw Deal for E-Discovery?

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone on a veto bender over the last few days, axing 322 bills -- about a third that lawmakers have sent him -- as of late Tuesday afternoon. Among the dead is Assembly Bill 926, which would have enacted new electronic discovery rules long sought by the Judicial Council.

Council staffers along with plaintiff attorneys and defense counsel had worked on the rules for two years, finally reaching a broad agreement on legislative language. AB 926 sailed through the Legislature this summer without a single no vote. Schwarzenegger gave no specific reason for nixing the bill, offering only the same boilerplate language he has attached to most other bills receiving a veto:

"The historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 state budget has forced me to prioritize the bills sent to my desk at the end of the year's legislative session," Schwarzenegger wrote. "Given the delay, I am only signing bills that are the highest priority for California. This bill does not meet that standard and I cannot sign it at this time."

The bill's supporters were left scratching their heads."

Mimosa Signs 500th Customer Deal to Ensure the Retention, Preservation, Protection and Recovery of Vital Enterprise Information

Mimosa Signs 500th Customer Deal to Ensure the Retention, Preservation, Protection and Recovery of Vital Enterprise Information

"Mimosa Systems, a leader in live content archiving solutions, announced today it has crossed the 500th customer mark to ensure the retention, preservation and recovery of vital enterprise information.

In reaching this milestone, Mimosa has solidified its position as the leading pure-play integrated content archiving vendor, with deployments across the globe and triple-digit sales growth.

In today's economic climate, enterprises are looking for ways to squeeze more value and efficiency out of their IT investment. Mimosa NearPoint TM allows organizations to offset the high costs of storage and management due to email and file proliferation. Mimosa's unified content archiving solution allows enterprises to take a proactive approach to eDiscovery that minimizes risk while slashing storage costs more than 30 percent by offloading content from production servers to archive servers leveraging lower cost storage.

More than 500 customers worldwide are leveraging the power of the Mimosa NearPoint content archiving solution to address critical business and global regulatory requirements for content archiving, retrieval monitoring, data protection, disaster recovery, and storage optimization — all with a single platform."

United States: E-Discovery Alert! Protect Against Court Sanctions

United States: E-Discovery Alert! Protect Against Court Sanctions

"Background. Under the new federal rules, companies must preserve e-mails and other electronic data when litigation is anticipated. At some point early in litigation, you also may receive a "litigation hold" letter, from an attorney who is representing a former employee. "Litigation hold" letters put you and your company under the responsibility to warn employees to preserve electronic data immediately.

Serious consequences arise when one ignores a litigation hold letter. Federal judges can enter "sanctions," against companies which do not preserve electronic data, or who alter electronic data. Sanctions also can be entered against employees."

E-Discovery Ensures Evidence Can't Hide

E-Discovery Ensures Evidence Can't Hide

"f you think you can hide evidence in the deep recesses of your computer system, you might want to talk to Jim Hennenhoefer.

The San Diego area family law attorney is one of many in his field turning to "e-discovery," an emerging discipline that helps investigators locate just about anything tucked away in electronic files -- text, images, appointments, databases, Web sites and more.

In a divorce Hennenhoefer recently handled, e-discovery efforts led to evidence of pricey commercial real estate one spouse carefully had kept off the other's radar. Electronic sleuthing uncovered a trail of shell companies that led to the husband's ownership of a $9 million building in Los Angeles."

FTI Consulting, Inc. Announces the Acquisition of Strategic Discovery, Inc.

FTI Consulting, Inc. Announces the Acquisition of Strategic Discovery, Inc.

"FTI Consulting, Inc. the global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance their enterprise value, today announced the acquisition of Strategic Discovery, Inc. ("SDI"), a premier firm known for its market and thought leadership as well as its steadfast commitment to advancing rational and cost effective responses for corporate clients facing Electronically Stored Information demands. Further details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Strategic Discovery is a leader in the litigation discovery industry with innovative, comprehensive approaches to paper and electronic discovery as well as records management. SDI's twenty-five professionals bring more than 250 years of direct hands-on experience solving problems in law firms, major corporations and top technology and consulting firms."

Digital law and order

Digital law and order

"In today's litigious world, it is rare that any company can escape a lawsuit in its business life. It is becoming the CIO's job to make sure, when the time comes, that IT is ready for the onslaught of directives to turn over all electronic documents in a legal case. And that's where the headaches start for any IT department that does not have a good e-mail retention and retrieval system.

A year ago, the US government made electronic documents an official part of the discovery process during a lawsuit. The rules for what is called 'e-discovery' that took effect 1 December 2006, make production of electronic documents as important as turning over hard copies of material in any legal case. Companies typically have 30 days to answer any e-discovery request and face thousands of dollars in fines if they fail to respond promptly."

Lawyers Share E-Discovery Woes

Lawyers Share E-Discovery Woes

"More than a year after the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) were amended to bring electronic information more into the pretrial process, many users have still not tackled the storage challenges of e-discovery.

From backup tapes hidden in the floor to unresponsive ERP systems and a worrying lack of knowledge from key personnel, users are wrestling with multiple challenges."

New niche for e-discovery: special masters

New niche for e-discovery: special masters

"The increased use of electronic discovery has resulted in a new set of practitioners: e-discovery special masters.

A special master is an officer of the court appointed to help with its proceedings, and may perform functions such as taking testimony or advising the court as a neutral expert."

EDD Uncertainty Looms Over LegalTech

EDD Uncertainty Looms Over LegalTech

"It's no suprise that e-discovery continued to be front and center at LegalTech New York again this year. This persistent emphasis stems from the 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which bring uncertainty and unpredictability to e-discovery outcomes for corporations and law firms alike.

This year's conference attendees were on the hunt for tools and services to reduce the impact of inadequate processes that can result in a less than "good faith" attempt at archiving business records. In addition, attendees looked for new products and services that would ensure litigation readiness. And the vendors at LegalTech did not let them down."