Litigation

California Legislature Reconsiders E-Discovery Amendments

By reston, Gates and Ellis

On December 1, 2008 California Assembly Member Noreen Evans introduced Assembly Bill 5, the “Electronic Discovery Act” – a bill that would amend California’s Civil Discovery Act to include rules governing the discovery of electronically stored information.  As stated in AB 5:

This bill would establish procedures for a person to obtain discovery of electronically stored information, as defined, in addition to documents, tangible things, and land or other property, in the possession of any party to the action.  This bill would permit discovery by the means of copying, testing, or sampling, in addition to inspection of documents, tangible things, land or other property, or electronically stored information.

The proposed amendments closely track several of the 2006 e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

This bill is virtually identical to the “original” e-discovery bill, Assembly Bill 926, vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this year.  The notable exception is the inclusion of an urgency clause which would make the bill effective immediately upon signing.

To read the full text Assembly Bill 5, click here.

Full post as published by eDiscovery Law on December 24, 2008 (boomark / email).