EDD Update

Law Technology News Daily Alert

We've launched our Law Technology News Daily Alert!  It's a joint project managed by Law.com's tech editor Sean Doherty and LTN editor Monica Bay -- the same combo that brings you this blog! To subscribe, click here.

Grimm Prognosis for ESI Privilege: EDD Must Read!

I'll have a lot more to say about Judge Paul Grimm's opinion in Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc. (May 29, 2008) because it makes enough important points about ESI search and privilege issues (as well as lawyer behavior re: same) to fill a daylong CLE program.  It''s a richly footnoted 43 pages, so give it some time, but definitely be the first on your block to launch the lively discussions--and debates--it will engender.

Fios June E-Discovery Webcasts

Fios has a lineup of June webcasts: 

• Wednesday, June 3: "Authenticating Evidence for E-Discovery," with Dennis Kiker, Director, Fios Consulting, and Mary Mack, Corporate Technology Counsel, Fios Inc.

• Tuesday, June 10: "Habits of Highly Effective Discovery Response Teams," with Nancy Patton, Consultant, Fios Consulting.

• Thursday, June 19: "Discovery Readiness: Know where you are, where you're going, and how to get there," with Sam Panarella, vice president and managing director, Fios Consulting, and Peter McLaughlin, Director, Fios Consulting.

Go here for more information.   

GE's Opponent Brings Bad Things to Light

Today's Law.com newswire featured an article from The Connecticut Law Tribune called, "GE Suffers a Redaction Disaster" that details how plaintiffs' counsel in a class action sex discrimination case against General Electric allowed confidential information to be made available on the federal PACER filing system by misusing the black block approach to redaction.  Though the precise method by which the pooch was rudely ravished is not stated in the article, you can be sure that some unhappy soul used the PDF highlighter tool to paint redacted text in black such that--black-on-black--it appeared unreadable.  Of course, this does nothing to scrub the data layer of the PDF, and one need only block, copy and paste to read everything that was "redacted."

The amazing thing isn't that this happened, but that it is still happening with regularity.  This snakebit approach to redaction has caused so much front page grief, it's a wonder that every firm (and every legal malpractice carrier) hasn't had a warning memo in firmwide circulation since, say, 2005 when an embarassingly detailed "redacted" report of our troops in Iraq firing on the rescuers of kidnapped Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, proved to be redacted in the same flawed manner. [The article mentions the Sgrena fiasco, and Ms. Sgrena may be distressed to read the premature report of la sua morte.  She was shot, but survived.  Sadly, one of her rescuers, Nicola Calipari, was not so lucky].

Is E-Discovery Greek to You?

While e-discovery may be Greek to many, it is those documents written in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian that cause much of the trouble.

Onsite3 and Clearwell Sponsor E-Discovery Webinar

Onsite3 and Clearwell Systems will be co-sponsoring an e-discovery webinar: "E-Discovery Best Practices for Early Case Assessments" will take place Tuesday, June 10, from 1-2 pm EST. 
It will cover how to utilize "quick peeks" to develop more effective case strategies, best practices of leading law firms and corporations, and more.  For details,  go here.   

And They'll Guess Your Weight for a Quarter, Too!

Life is full of uncertainty, so I understand the urge to approach Federal courts for anticipatory reassurance when one faces a foggy crossroads.  Who wouldn't like to run to Dad for advice when drunk, grief-stricken Mr. Gower might be putting something bad in the capsules?  Having lately endured the final installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, "Indiana Jones and The Two Hours and Nine Bucks I'll Never Get Back Again," I'd welcome advisory opinions from the Federal bench about movies, restaurants, vacation hotspots, EDD preservation duties and Indian outsourcing.

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But, alas, our underpaid Federal bench isn't willing to offer advisory opinions (or lifestyle tips), stodgily preferring to adjudicate only real cases and controversies.

Clearwell Systems and Google Host EDD Webinar

Clearwell Systems Inc. has announced a free web seminar with Google.  The seminar will feature Vivian Tero, Program Manager for Compliance Infrastructure at IDC. It is titled "Weathering the E-Discovery Perfect Storm: Best Practices for Gaining Control over Corporate E-Discovery," and will be held on Tuesday, June 3 at 10 AM PDT.  Go here to register.   

Symantec's E-discovery Roundtable Podcast

Recently, Symantec has posted a podcast of its recent e-discovery roundtable, featuring Ted Barassi of Symantec Corp.; James Daley of Redgrave Daley Ragan & Wagner; Gregg Davis of Webcor Builders; and George Socha of Socha Consulting and the Electronic Discovery Reference Model.    Go here to listen. 

Wave Software Moves Orlando Headquarters

Wave Software, which specializes in the de-duplication, regeneration and export of native electronic data, has moved its corporate headquarters in Orlando, Florida.   Details here.

How to minimize legal holds' spoliation risks

Litigation and legal holds are a fact of life for major corporations. While on the surface the goal seems simple -- preserve and collect data relevant to litigation or government investigation and notify all stakeholders and custodians -- in reality there are many opportunities for foul-ups.  The risks of spoliation are real and the penalties painful and it's no longer enough to issue a hold on a wing and a prayer. Here's a look at how software solutions can help make the process painless.

E-Discovery is all in the asking

In e-discovery, as with many things in life, communicating in a clear and precise manner about what you want, and why you want it, can go a long way. Wolf Haldenstein's Adam J. Levitt and Scott J. Farrell review a recent federal decision on the hot-button issues of discovery of metadata and documents in their "native format." They note that the decision offers some simple, commonsense advice on how to best achieve e-discovery objectives. First tip: Ask for it. Up front.

Off Topic: Plaxo Bought by Comcast?!

This is most definitely off-topic, but fascinating: Social Networking company Plaxo has just announced that it will be bought by... Comcast!?!

Fear and Loathing in Evidence Preservation

Most in-house counsel know the types of inquiries that should trigger evidence preservation or collection protocols. Once there is reason to believe there will be litigation or investigation, the duty to preserve kicks in immediately. But what's next? IE Discovery's Stacy Jackson and Jennifer Scrafford provide 10 questions that in-house counsel should consider and have ready answers for to help make collection efficient and cost-effective.

TechLaw Solutions Inc. and Nexidia Partner

TechLaw Solutions Inc. and Nexidia have partnered.  The companies will incorporate Nexidia’s phonetic audio search into TechLaw Solution’s e-discovery services, to be able to integrate  audio files in complex e-discovery requests.  Details here. 

When E-Discovery Is Put to the Test

E-discovery may be on a path toward its most searching scrutiny yet. In Disability Rights Council v. Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, Judge John M. Facciola recommended "concept searching" -- the use of complex algorithms that use linguistic or statistical patterning -- for a tardy producer to wade through voluminous data quickly. But Facciola made no mention of whether concept searching tools should be subject to the FRE Rule 702 governing the admission of scientific or expert testimony.

OrcaTec Releases Information Retrieval Toolkit 2.1

The OrcaTec Information Retrieval Toolkit 2.1 features two new tools:  e-mail threading and
search suggestions.  The e-mail threading tool groups e-mails into threads, so that the fully quoted emails do not have to be read separately, and the automatic suggestion tool suggests search terms from the index, including spelling variations.  More info is available here.

Surety Releases E-Mail Security Survey Results

IT security software provider Surety has released the results of the 2008 Email Security and Authentication Survey. The survey -- of 800+ IT security, email security and compliance professionals -- revealed significant concerns about email content security and the preservation of emails for litigation.  Results include:

• More than 65 percent of respondents lack confidence that their organization's e-mail records would be  admitted as evidence in legal, regulatory or patent disputes; 
• More than 80 percent of respondents are concerned about their ability to authenticate e-mail records  and attachments; and 
• More than 50 percent of respondents remain unclear on new regulations and legal expectations related to e-mail authentication, including e-discovery.

Full survey results and press release here. 

Daticon Releases invenio 6.3 E-Discovery Platform

Daticon's invenio 6.3 has added new features to the e-discovery processing and document review platform, including components that allow case managers to organize review subsets by "family units" (such as an e-mail and its related attachments).  Details here.

Kroll Ontrack's college try ...

Kroll Ontrack Inc. unearthed data from a hard drive that fell from the wreckage of the space shuttle Columbia. Apparently, most of the data was already transferred to Earth while the Columbia was in orbit. But Kroll Ontrack was able to recover the remainder to complete an experiment published in Physical Review E.

Webinar on In-House v. Outsourced E-Discovery

Clearwell is sponsoring a webinar called "Achieving the Right Balance between In-House Technology and Outsourced E-Discovery Services."  It will take place May 14, at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET., and will feature e-discovery experts George Socha and Dean Gonsowski.  For more information or to register, click here.

IE Discovery Inc. Upgrades InfoDox Platform

IE Discovery Inc., which provides discovery management software and services, has upgraded its InfoDox platform. Users can now review potential duplicate documents side-by-side.  Press release here.

Catalyst Repository Systems Releases CR 7.1

Catalyst Repository Systems has released CR 7.1.  New features have been added to its Assigned Review Module, including a graphical workflow diagram.  More info here.

Tom O'Connor on Law Technology Now

E-Discovery: Defining Documents -- Bye Bye Bates

One of the most challenging problems facing litigators is how to work with the massive volume of digital documents produced during discovery. In the past, each piece of paper was stamped with a "Bates" number -- to help manage exhibits. But with digital files, no "pages" and no "Bates" number! Now files may be anything from Excel spread sheets to Word files, to e-mail, to iPod downloads! What to do?

Listen as Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News talks with Tom O'Connor, director of the Legal Electronic Document Institute (and a long-time member of LTN's editorial advisory board) who says it's time to rethink how we process and review files. Hear about a simple step that controls costs, improves accuracy and could dramatically change the face of e-discovery.

Go deep for e-discovery answers

Failures to preserve and produce electronically stored information occur when organizations rely on error-prone, manual electronic discovery processes. Clearly, a deeper understanding of how to evaluate e-discovery technology is sorely needed. DLA Piper partner Browning Marean examines the most important criteria for evaluating e-discovery software and services that will maximize cost savings, reduce risk, improve business efficiencies and adhere to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for you or your clients.

FTK 2.0: Product Review

In the years I've been writing about forensic technology, I've shied away from reviews that dumped on products.  If I couldn't say something nice, I tried to talk about something else.  Heck, I generally steered clear of mentioning any product by name unless I liked it so much I could barely contain myself.  There are few perfect software products, and just about any application is a buggy mess in its point-O release.  Likewise, code bloat and ham-handed departure from the simple virtues that drew us to a product in the first place are common missteps.

But the problems seen in the latest 2.0 release of the venerable AccessData Corp. product, Forensic Tool Kit (FTK 2.0), just seem deeper and wider than I've run into elsewhere, and I'd be doing you a disservice, dear reader, if I glossed over them.  Read on to get a smattering of why I say "Wait! Spare yourself the pain!" when it comes to the FTK "upgrade."

CTSummation's Discovery Cracker 5.1 Webinar

CTSummation will be holding a webinar demonstration of Discovery Cracker 5.1.  It will take place May 15, at 10 AM PDT.  It will take attendees through an EDD processing project.  Registration and info here. 

CTSummation Litigation Support Boot Camp

Alonso Consulting and Training will be holding a CTSummation Litigation Support Boot Camp, May 20-22, in Orlando, Florida.  (Not planning on being in the area?  There are also upcoming June camps in North Carolina and Washington, D.C.)  It counts toward CLE.  More info and registration here. 

Howrey Partners With Guidance Software

Law firm Howrey, which specializes in antitrust, intellectual property and complex commercial litigation and trial practice, has partnered with Guidance Software.  Guidance will provide its EnCase eDiscovery software to Howrey clients.  Go here for details.

ESI in Lost E-Mail Attachments

Boies, Schiller & Flexner partner Adam R. Shaw discusses three recent decisions issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York: a decision by Magistrate Judge Randolph F. Treece evaluating who pays for the production of electronically stored information; a decision by District Judge Gary L. Sharpe addressing the procedures for considering alternate grounds for affirmance on a motion for reconsideration; and a decision by Senior District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. analyzing when the amount of attorney fees can be counted toward jurisdictional thresholds.

'Blocking' Statutes Bring Discovery Woes

Cross-border discovery is a subject on which the U.S. and much of the rest of the world do not see eye to eye. Although litigants may obtain discovery from foreign parties in a U.S. court, explain Lovell's partners Marc J. Gottridge and Thomas Rouhette, a number of countries have enacted "blocking" statutes forbidding their nationals from cooperating with American discovery requests or orders.

Attenex Corp. Partners with StoredIQ, Kazeon

Attenex Corp. and StoredIQ have partnered to provide enterprise customers with a combined offering of their products.  Attenex Corp. sells e-discovery processing, analysis and review software, and StoredIQ sells software that helps users identify, collect and preserve e-mail and user files.  The alliance enables the companies to offer e-discovery software from identification through legal review.  Press release here.

Attenex Corp. and Kazeon Systems Inc. have also allied, to provide enterprise customers, legal service providers and law firms with a combined offering of their software applications. Through the alliance, corporate legal and IT departments can ensure consistent and targeted eDiscovery processes across the company in a repeatable, defensible manner. Press release here.

Moving data from inaccessible to accessible

Under the FRCP, parties may not have to search "inaccessible," or "not reasonably accessible" data to respond to discovery requests. To support the inaccessiblity of data, lawyers often rely on the fact that data resides on backup tapes solely designed to recover from natural disasters; or that the data recover is unduly costly and a potentially unfair burden to bear based on the information requested. Indeed, sequestering a haystack to look for a needle may indeed be unreasonable; unless of course you have a metal detector.

Katie's Corner #050108

At EDD Update, we link fairly regularly to vendor resources--websites, podcasts, webinars, white papers.  There are tons of these, and many are very useful.   But just a few years ago, a vendor website as a source of information might have been regarded with suspicion, if not dismissed outright.  Wouldn’t it just be self-promotion? 

Yes, of course. There’s self-promotion to a large extent.  But these sites can’t--and shouldn’t--be dismissed out of hand.  Given the hundreds of EDD companies out there, some companies have been looking for a way to be heard above the internet white noise--and providing valuable information to potential customers is one such way.  The result?  The customer wins.

Fios Inc. Presents E-Discovery Webcasts

Fios Inc. is presenting a webcast:  "Complex Litigation, Complex Data, Collaborative e-Discovery" will take place Wednesday, May 07, at 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern.  It will last one hour and feature Laura Webster (Program Management Analyst at Fios) and Mary Mack (Corporate Technology Counsel at Fios).  Details here.

Other upcoming webcasts include:

• An Inside Look at Corporate Legal Departments - New Research Unveils e-Discovery Trends and Perspectives (Wednesday, May 14)

• Electronic Discovery 101 (Thursday, May 22)
  

A complete list of upcoming webcasts and details can be found here.