For the past few years, we’ve been making the point that all too many attorneys are under-educated in the requirements of e-discovery and ill-prepared to litigate matters successfully. Attorneys who do not understand the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure risk the failure of the litigation they pursue, as well as sanctions in more severe cases. Today, this message earned headlines from the New York Times and from National Public Radio. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach received a sharp rebuke and sanctions from Chief District Judge Julie A... Read More

In John Finkelstein v. San Mateo County District Attorney's Office (N.D. Cal., May 17, 2018), the court determined that forensic imaging of selected cellphones had merit, given the plaintiffs' admission that the devices would be overwritten since they were still in regular use. Overview The plaintiffs in this case asked the court to reconsider its prior ruling allowing some of the plaintiffs’ electronic devices to be forensically imaged.There is no dispute that the plaintiffs had a duty to preserve information that was stored on the electronic devices in question. The plaintiffs admitted when the... Read More

As data volumes increase and become more complex, having an integrated e-discovery environment where systems and data sources automatically sync information and exchange data with e-discovery applications has become even more critical for enterprises. This is true of unstructured and semi-structured data sources, such as email servers and content management systems, as well as structured data sources, like databases and data archives. Structured data exists in discrete pieces (typically called "fields") that are preserved in a large archive or database. All entries have a consistent format (or structure) and organized into rows and columns. Contact... Read More

The practice of e-discovery takes place in the interesting intersection between the law and technology. Spending a moment thinking about these two large forces that play a significant role shaping society, it would be easy to adopt the view that technology pushes e-discovery to change and evolve, while the law slows down the process of change with its inherent conservatism. Thinking about common wisdom that applies to these forces, the first things that pop into my head are “the wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine,” and Moore’s Law, which... Read More

Three years out from the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), it would be nice to think that both the bench and the bar have a firm grasp on the finer points of e-discovery law. But of course, that’s not really how the law works. E-Discovery practice evolves over time, changing in response to both technology and case rulings. That's why we created the Simplified E-Discovery Case Law Library--to provide quick summaries of recent e-discovery case law, as well as tips for how to incorporate the lessons learned... Read More

Exterro's State of E-Discovery 2018 report pulls together a wealth of statistics from a wide range of surveys, reports, and polls on e-discovery topics, mostly from the the past year, so there are actually a wealth of topics this week's installment in our data analysis series could discuss. After all, the report tackles a broad range of topics and looks at how e-discovery practice has evolved over the past few years. But the point of the analysis isn't so much to dissect the past as it is to provide a means to continue... Read More

It's one thing to have defensible information governance policies that call for data deletion in place. But it's entirely another thing to be the one pushing the "delete" button. As an e-discovery professional, though, you have to be aware of the costs of storing redundant, obsolete, and trivial data--and the potential litigation risk it creates. Start building your resolve to delete ESI (when appropriate, of course!) with this Information Governance Checklist.And if you'd rather just have a laugh, you can always visit our entire catalog of E-Discovery Memes and Cartoons, and feel free to... Read More