Guidance on Reining in E-Discovery: Think Proportionality

http://ow.ly/7jSYm

An article by Sharon Nelson and John Simek appearing on the ABA website americanbar.org.

This article discusses eDiscovery issues and provides an overview of the impact of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and also Sedona Conference Principles.

The article states, "The concept of “proportionality,” whereby discovery monies may be deemed disproportionate to the amount in dispute in a case, has been in the legal system for some time. It’s just that it hasn’t been exercised enough"

The article discusses Rule 26 and the various revised subsections of the rule that is aimed to address electronically stored information.

In addition, the article discusses six principles of the Sedona Conference as follows:

1. The burdens and costs of preservation of potentially relevant information should be weighed against the potential value and uniqueness of the information when determining the appropriate scope of preservation. 
2. Discovery should generally be obtained from the most convenient, least burdensome, and least expensive sources. 
3. Undue burden, expense, or delay resulting from a party’s action or inaction should be weighed against the party. 
4. Extrinsic information and sampling may assist in the analysis of whether requested discovery is sufficiently important to warrant the potential burden or expense of its production. 
5. Non-monetary factors should be considered when evaluating the burdens and benefits of discovery. 
6. Technologies to reduce cost and burden should be considered in the proportionality analysis.