A monthly round-up of eDiscovery industry news stories, useful publications, and notable cases of which you should be aware from the preceding month Welcome to “Because You Need to Know,” XDD’s monthly news round-up.  In these posts, we gather together interesting articles, noteworthy cases, new publications, and XDD materials from the preceding month.  This post gathers items of interest from May 2021. Industry News Stories Interesting topics in the news in May included remote matter complications and law firms’ post-pandemic transition plans: Remote Matter Complications Zoom Verd ..read more

A United States District Judge finds screenshots of social media messages an inadequate substitute for spoliated native files and excludes all related evidence and testimony We have discussed before the challenges associated with collecting and authenticating social media evidence, including the unsuitability of relying on screenshots in most circumstances (unless you have a negotiated agreement to accept them or an admission of authenticity from your party-opponent).  Recently, in the case of Edwards, Jr. v. Junior State of America Foundation, Case No. 4:19-CV-140-SDJ (E.D. Tex. Apr. 23 ..read more

A monthly round-up of eDiscovery industry news stories, useful publications, and notable cases of which you should be aware from the preceding month Welcome to “Because You Need to Know,” XDD’s monthly news round-up.  In these posts, we gather together interesting articles, noteworthy cases, new publications, and XDD materials from the preceding month.  This post gathers items of interest from April 2021. Industry News Stories Interesting topics in the news in April included the XDD-Consilio Merger, new social media developments, and new privacy considerations: XDD-Consilio Merger ..read more

A Magistrate Judge shifted almost $850,000 in discovery expenses in a decision that “may become the new ‘gold standard’” for discovery cost-shifting analysis. Last summer, in Lawson v. Spirit AeroSystems, Case No. 18-1100-EFM-ADM (D. Kan. June 18, 2020), a Magistrate Judge issued an order on shifting discovery costs that “may become the new ‘gold standard’” model for analysis of such motions under FRCP 26(c)(1)(B).  That order was later upheld by the Judge in the case, resulting in the shifting to the requesting party of over $750,000 in costs associated with conducting a technology-assis ..read more

Another court makes clear that relevant Slack messages are discoverable and, with the right tools and limits, not unduly burdensome or disproportional As we discussed last year, use of the workplace collaboration and messaging tool Slack has been growing exponentially, first augmenting and then starting to supplant email usage within many organizations.  And, with such widespread usage, Slack has started to become a common source for the discovery of relevant materials, with references in cases beginning to appear in 2019 (e.g., Calendar Research v. Stubhub, Milbeck v. Truecar, and Rondev ..read more

A monthly round-up of eDiscovery industry news stories, useful publications, and notable cases of which you should be aware from the preceding month Welcome to “Because You Need to Know,” XDD’s monthly news round-up.  In these posts, we gather together interesting articles, noteworthy cases, new publications, and XDD materials from the preceding month.  This post gathers items of interest from March 2021. Industry News Stories Interesting topics in the news in March included Missouri rule changes, sanctions trends, the role of judges, privacy law developments, and text message risks ..read more

Although the available ESI and eDiscovery tools are the same, handling eDiscovery for DOJ or FTC second requests can be an especially difficult challenge The majority of eDiscovery work takes place in the context of litigation, but a significant amount of it also takes place in the context of regulatory agency investigations.  Among the most challenging types of such investigations are second requests.  Although the available ESI and eDiscovery tools are the same, handling eDiscovery for second requests is different from handling eDiscovery for litigation in some ways worth discussin ..read more

As mobile sources, collaboration tools, and other messaging services have rapidly increased in number and importance, practitioners have begun to wrestle with emoji in eDiscovery As smartphones and social media communication channels have become more frequent sources, so too have emoji shown up more frequently in cases.  In 2019, Santa Clara University Professor of Law Eric Goldman published “Emojis and the Law” in the Washington Law Review, which revealed that “[b]etween 2004 and 2019, there was an exponential rise in emoji and emoticon references in US court opinions, with over 30 perce ..read more

A monthly round-up of eDiscovery industry news stories, useful publications, and notable cases of which you should be aware from the preceding month Welcome to “Because You Need to Know,” XDD’s monthly news round-up.  In these posts, we gather together interesting articles, noteworthy cases, new publications, and XDD materials from the preceding month.  This post gathers items of interest from February 2021. Industry News Stories Interesting topics in the news in February included privacy updates, a spoliation analysis, and ongoing cybersecurity issues: Privacy Updates Google, Plai ..read more

As mobile device sources have rapidly increased in number and importance, practitioners are struggling more often with the question of what format to use for such productions Mobile devices have become frequent sources of relevant ESI in litigation.  According to one litigation trends survey, roughly half of all litigation matters in 2015 and 2016 involved preservation and/or collection of mobile device data.  Of the mobile device sources implicated in 2016, 93% were smartphones.  In its 2019 Report on Industry Trends for Law Enforcement, Cellebrite (maker of forensic tools for ..read more