Litigation Support

Last week, John and I taught classes for the Judicial Conference of Virginia. So what are the judges thinking about with respect to electronic discovery? It is always interesting to hear from judges ? their perspective is much different than the lawyers. Noted from the members of the bench:

1) Skepticism about the projected costs of ED, especially when used to bolster an ?undue burden? argument.

2) Confusion about the meaning of ?inaccessible? and how quickly this definition is changing.

3) Confusion about janitorial functions, defragging, compacting, etc. and how these functions should be handled when a litigation hold is in force.

4) A desire to learn how to quell the combat of samurai attorneys who insist on bringing every ED dispute into court.

5) Recognition that the federal rules will seep into the states in one form or another. We're still waiting in Virginia to see what form our rules will take.

6) Fascination with how other judges are handling ED issues, and a desire for that guidance from their more tech savvy colleagues.

7) Surprise at how much some computer forensics experts ?puff? their CVs and a desire to learn about computer forensics certifications.

8) Shock at how easy it is to alter or fabricate evidence ? we did an hour on this and they were absolutely amazed at the rapid-fire transformation of digital, audio and video evidence. They were even more shocked at how much of what we showed them had been done by our 15-year-old intern.

And my favorite tongue-in-check quotes ?

?Isn?t there some ?Idiot?s Guide to ESI? I can read??

?Do you guys pass out Advil when you teach this stuff??

?Why am I here when I could be on the golf course??

At least they went straight from our classes to the cocktail reception, so relief was at hand! Judge Rosemarie Annunziata, a good friend, was at the reception. She greeted us with a twinkle in her eye and noted unapologetically, ?I love you guys, but I went shopping instead.? Good choice kid.

E-mail: snelson@senseient.com      Phone: 703-359-0700