E-Discovery Bytes : E-Discovery Lawyer & Attorney : Quarles & Brady Law Firm : Electronic Discovery, Data Preservation, Conversion, Computer Forensics

Today's predominant word processors are Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect. MS Word is also offered as a web-based application or Saas (Software-as-a-Service).  However, there is a newer type of document collaboration, where numerous people have access to the same document so that they can all contribute and monitor changes made by others.  These types of applications are becoming more common.  For example, Google has begun to offer its own Google Word Processor called "Google Docs" -- which allows users to share and collaborate on documents. 

What does it matter which type you use in your business?  Here's one comparison between the Google and Microsoft web products.  But there's much more when it comes to the battle between WORD v. GOOGLE DOCS.

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A recent ruling of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) should serve as a yet another reminder of the importance of adequately preserving electronically stored data.

On July 2, 2010, the SEC ruled that vFinance Investments Inc., a Florida based broker dealer, violated securities laws by failing to preserve and produce electronic communications requested by the SEC as required by Section 17(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In re vFinance Investments Inc., SEC, Admin. Proc. File No. 3-12918, 7/2/10.

In addition, as another example of the growing trend of blaming corporate executives for e-discovery failures, the SEC held that the firm’s former chief compliance officer, Richard Campanella, was liable for willfully aiding and abetting vFinance’s violations. The SEC sustained an administrative law judge’s decision censuring the Campanella and assessing penalties of $100,000 and $30,000 against the firm and Campanella, respectively. The SEC also barred Campanella from the industry for two years.

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On July 6, 2010, the Wisconsin Supreme Court set the date for the next and final hearing regarding amendments to the state rules of civil procedure that relate to the discovery of electronically stored information. The hearing will take place on September 30, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. at the State Capitol in Madison. The Court will accept written comments from the public until August 31, 2010. 

By a 4-3 vote, the Court has already adopted amendments to Wis. Stat. §§ 802.10, 804.01, 804.08, 804.09, 804.12 and 805.07 to address e-discovery. However, the amendments are subject to revision following public comment and the hearing on September 30, 2010. The amendments will become effective January 1, 2011. 

As the 4-3 voting split indicates, the Court is not of one mind regarding the amendments. While all of the Justices agree that the rules should be amended to address e-discovery, there are three key issues regarding which the Court remains divided: 

(1) whether the rules should require parties to meet and confer on e-discovery at the outset;

(2) whether the rules should include a “claw-back” provision; and

(3) whether the rules should expressly provide for cost-shifting. 

Currently, the amendments include a mandatory meet and confer provision regarding e-discovery and do not include claw back or cost shifting provisions.  Under the circumstances, and because the Court is divided, it looks as though the public has a meaningful opportunity not only to be heard, but to affect the ultimate outcome.

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This article was published by Wendy Akbar and Bill Hamilton.

Remember the days before the computer, the typewriter, the printing press, and even carbon paper? The days when, to copy a book, one needed to sit down and re-write it by hand? Every letter of every word of every sentence-dappled paragraph, had to be painstakingly copied one by one. With all the technology available today, no publisher would ever consider copying a book by hand rather than re-printing a copy saved on the computer. To do so would be a waste of time -- a return to the Dark Ages.

When it comes to e-discovery, unfortunately, the Dark Ages still occasionally guest stars in modern-day electronically stored information (ESI) retrieval and production. The dangers of being such an e-discovery ostrich were most recently highlighted in Multiven, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, 2010 WL 2813618 (N.D. Cal. July 9, 2010). Plaintiff Multiven, along with the two counterclaim defendants, originally elected to undertake a manual review of the full set of voluminous ESI it possessed prior to production. Sound conscientious? Not exactly. It means they turned the clock back about 15 years (in e-discovery time, akin to 150 years) and:

(1) Refused to use an outside vendor to help organize ESI information;
(2) Refused to utilize any search terms to narrow the "giant mass" of data to be reviewed;
(3) Instead used approximately five attorneys for six months to a year, to manually review every unfiltered page of "that giant mass" for responsive documents.

Why? They wanted to save on cost, particularly the expense of hiring an outside vendor to help whittle down potentially responsive information. Perhaps they adopted a manual review for other strategic reasons. (Never mind, of course, the hourly billing rate of five attorneys doing eight hours of document review five days a week for over six months, which more likely than not was more expensive than hiring a vendor to narrow the "giant mass" to a more reasonable review load for the attorneys).   The end result, however, was not exactly what was intended . . .
 

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 Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.

                                                                              -- Will Rogers

When reviewing and establishing a document retention policy for your business, it pays to pay attention to what constitutes gossip - or, as we call it, hearsay - in the electronic world.  Because sometimes, even e-hearsay can make it into the courtroom.

In a blog posted in WSJ Digits, Ethan Smith reported that thirteen record labels sued the on-line peer-to-peer music sharing program LimeWire for copyright infringement and related infractions. In May 2010, the Court faced Defendant's motion to suppress electronic evidence, such as exhibits of LimeWire's email chains, online exchanges and internet forum postings, on the grounds that it was inadmissable as hearsay.

The Court denied Defendant's motion . . .

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