A Practical Guide to
eDiscovery in Litigation
Presented by:
Christopher N. Weiss
Aric H. Jarrett
Stoel Rives LLP
Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA), Washington Chapter
September 2011
1
eDiscovery – The Outline
1. Overview
2. eDiscovery Paradigm
a. Preservation
b. Collection
c.
Production
3. Spoliation Sanctions
4. Preparing Your Defense
5. eDiscovery in Practice
2
Examples of ESI
Web logs
Word processing documents
Graphic images
Spreadsheets
Email messages and
attachments
Plus other data created and stored on computers and networks.
3
Boxes of Bytes:
Putting It All In Perspective
=
=
File Sizes
1
2,500
50
10
25,000
500
20
50,000
1
1,000
2,500,000
50
Megabytes
Server
Attached Network
Typical PC
Hard Disk
Gigabytes
___________________________________________
Assumptions:
4
5,000
12,500,000
250
20,000
50,000,000
1
60,000
150,000,000
3
Average banker’s box holds 2,500 sheets of paper. 1 page of information on average = (.02 megabytes)
Terabytes
Mining for Metadata
• Why would you want it?
• What does it look like?
• Do you have to be a
computer geek to
understand it?
5
Metadata: Cautionary Tales
• A Case of Sunspots (2010)
– Evidence authentication and admissibility
– Witness credibility
• Nat’l Day Laborer Org. Net. v. United States I.C.E.
– Production of metadata under FOIA
– Citation: 2011 WL 381625 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 7, 2011)
(Scheindlin, J.), withdrawn June 17, 2011
6
Discovery Paradigm
Preservation  Collection  Production
________________
▲▼
________________
Analysis  Presentation
7
The Duty to Preserve
• Various bases for the duty to
preserve
• When the duty to preserve
arises is case-specific
• What must be preserved?
– Hardcopy and ESI
– But also…
• USB flash drives
• Instant messages & text messages
• Skype messages
8
Litigation Holds
• Recipients
• Contents
–
–
–
–
–
–
Preserve documents & ESI
Suspend any destruction policy
Describe dispute, date range
Identify contact person
Methods of collection, if known
Duration
• Follow-up
9
Litigation Holds: Cautionary Tales
• The Boiler Case (2009)
• Pension Comm. of the Univ. of
Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of
Am. Sec., LLC
– Failure to issue written litigation hold:
gross negligence
– Citation: 685 F. Supp. 2d 456
(S.D.N.Y. 2010) (Scheindlin, J.)
10
Discovery Paradigm
Preservation  Collection  Production
________________
▲▼
________________
Analysis  Presentation
11
Locating & Mapping ESI
• Two Issues:
– Where is potentially-relevant ESI
located?
– Who are the custodians?
• Mapping ESI
–
–
–
–
–
–
12
Detail systems
Develop custodian list
Determine information flow(s)
Understand email storage
Identify network collaboration tools
Locate off-site storage
ESI Collection (Continued)
• Teamwork
–
–
–
–
In-house counsel
Outside counsel
IT
Management
• Vendors
• Analytical Software
13
Discovery Paradigm
Preservation  Collection  Production
________________
▲▼
________________
Analysis  Presentation
14
The Duty to Produce
•
•
•
•
Traditional “Eyes On” Review
Key Word Search
Analytical Software
Fed. R. Ev. 502(b)
– Inadvertent disclosure of
privileged material
15
Spoliation – What Is It?
• Destruction
• Material alteration
• Failure to preserve
• Shredding documents
• Altering documents or
metadata
• Deleting, wiping ESI
16
Spoliation – Sanctions & Remedies
Image: © Miguel Fernandez (All Rights Reserved)
17
•
Additional discovery
•
Monetary sanctions
•
Rebuttable or mandatory
inferences
•
Exclusion of evidence
•
Striking defenses
•
Dismissal or default
•
Civil contempt, jail time
Spoliation – Game Over?
• Two Factors:
– Potential importance or relevance of
missing evidence
– Culpability or fault of spoliating party
• In Washington:
– Bad faith is not a prerequisite
– Only requires “improper” actions
18
Preservation & Production:
Preparing Your Defense
• Understand your ESI ecosystem
– Types of ESI
– Custodians
– Locations
• Document preservation & production efforts
–
–
–
–
–
Written litigation hold
Search methods, mechanics
Search locations (e.g., active, backup, archive data)
List any search terms, date ranges
Note date(s) of preservation & production efforts
• Teamwork
19
Discovery Paradigm
Preservation  Collection  Production
________________
▲▼
________________
Analysis  Presentation
20
eDiscovery in Practice
• Libraries
– Summation
– Concordance
– Ipro
• Notebooks
– Case Map
– eBinder
• Presentation Software
– PowerPoint, Sanction, Trial Director, Adobe Flash
21
eDiscovery Resources
22
•
Sedona Conference (thesedonaconference.org)
•
Discovery Resources (discoveryresources.org)
•
Record retention programs (ironmountain.com)
•
IT perspective eDiscovery (kahnconsultinginc.com)
•
Managing Discovery of Electronically Stored Information:
A Pocket Guide for Judges (Hon. Barbara Rothstein, et al.)
A Practical Guide to
eDiscovery in Litigation
QUESTIONS?
23