Preparation for Defensibility, Alternative Avenues for Cost Cutting are Key E-Discovery Trends of 2012

Created on May 16, 2012

By Mike Hamilton
Vice President, E-Discovery

Philosophers, spiritualists and average Joes, like you and me, have all probably heard of the ancient Mayan phenomenon regarding the year 2012. Is it the end of days? Is it the start of a new beginning? Or is it just another year? While no one knows what may lie ahead, what can definitively be said about 2012 so far is that is has been filled with numerous instructive e-discovery cases on costs and scoping, which are providing significant wakeup calls to legal teams.In Exterro's recent webcast, E-Discovery Case Law Wake-Up Call: No... Read More

BREAKING NEWS! FBI’s Newly Announced Investigation of JPMorgan to Create More E-Discovery Issues

Created on May 16, 2012

By Mike Hamilton
Vice President, E-Discovery

As CNN reported earlier today, the FBI has announced an investigation into the nation's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, signaling that criminally activity may have occurred within the company. While the specific nature of the investigation remains unclear, the FBI and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) (under a prior ongoing investigation) are probing for information from JPMorgan. Along with these external pressures, JPMorgan is conducting its own internal investigation to examine their recent $2 billion dollar trading loss stemming from a string of trades on credit default swaps.As JPMorgan treads its way through... Read More

Limiting Over-Preservation While Preserving Defensibility in E-Discovery

Created on May 14, 2012

By Andrew Bartholomew

As reported recently by edJ Group analyst Barry Murphy, one of the most common problems organizations face in e-discovery is over preservation. Not only are many organizations preserving more data than needed within single e-discovery projects but, as cases are resolved, they are often failing to dispose of data when it becomes legally permissible to do so. There may be several reasons for this trend.As I wrote last week, the cost of storing data has plummeted in recent years, so keeping unneeded data around is no longer the cost burden it once... Read More

Reducing E-Discovery Costs and Risks through Data Reuse

Created on May 7, 2012

By Andrew Bartholomew

As organizations look for ways to reduce e-discovery costs, one of the areas that has garnered considerable attention is data reuse. For many organizations, the process of identifying and preserving potentially relevant electronically stored information (ESI) starts from scratch with each new legal action. This approach fails to account for the fact that many lawsuits are related and, therefore, may involve much of the same ESI. What's collected for one matter could be leveraged across multiple matters.This reality has prompted a movement away from disparate e-discovery applications and has given rise to... Read More

On-Demand Webcast - E-Discovery Case Law Wake-Up Call: No regrets, just lessons learned...

Created on May 3, 2012

Almost half way through the year, 2012 has been filled with instructive e-discovery cases that are providing significant wakeup calls to legal teams. While the themes might be familiar – preservation triggers, cost shifting, cooperation, spoliation, etc. – it's the holes in the e-discovery process that are causing the alarms to go off.In this webcast, e-discovery attorneys David Cohen and Elizabeth Fitzwater highlighted the cases creating the biggest buzz in the industry and provided a “no regrets, just lessons learned" overview with key takeaways.Sample cases included: UPDATE: Pippins v. KPMG (S.D.N.Y. Feb... Read More

“Reasonableness” is Key When Assessing E-Discovery Efforts

Created on May 3, 2012

By Mike Hamilton
Vice President, E-Discovery

Like most procedural laws guided by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), one's actions need not be perfect. As Judge Waxse reminded his audience at LegalTech NY 2012, the standard in e-discovery isn't perfection, only reasonableness. In other words, courts aren't asking clients to get everything right every time; they're asking litigants to show that they made a reasonable effort to get it right.Even with Judge Waxse's endorsement, the term “reasonable" is loaded with ambiguity that leaves many parties scratching their heads; however, by analyzing case law, the definition of “reasonableness"... Read More

The Effects of the Newly Published E-Discovery Protocol on Federal Criminal Cases

Created on April 26, 2012

By Mike Hamilton
Vice President, E-Discovery

When most people talk about e-discovery, it's discussed in the context of civil litigation. But with the creation of a new e-discovery protocol regulating e-discovery behavior in federal criminal legal matters, civil law's long-lost counterpart, criminal law, can no longer be neglected when it comes to e-discovery. Officially titled, “Recommendations for ESI Discovery Production in Federal Criminal Cases," the protocol is designed to address the emerging problem that electronically stored information (ESI) presents in criminal cases (e.g., social media, email, etc.).As the protocol states below there are numerous opportunities to streamline the... Read More

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