Wednesday, April 12, 2006

New Civil Rules for E-Discovery

The Supreme Court today voted on a number of changes to court rules. Most will take effect December 1, unless Congress first votes to block the change.

Several changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concern electronic discovery. Quoting from the summary on USCourts.gov (which includes links to the text):

  • Civil Rule 16 (Pretrial Conferences; Scheduling; Management) (establishes process for the parties and court to address early issues pertaining to the disclosure and discovery of electronic information)
  • Civil Rule 26 (General Provisions Governing Discovery; Duty of Disclosure) (requires parties to discuss during the discovery-planning conference issues relating to the disclosure and discovery of electronically stored information)
  • Civil Rule 33 (Interrogatories to Parties) (expressly provides that an answer to an interrogatory involving review of business records should involve a search of electronically stored information)
  • Civil Rule 34 (Production of Documents and Things and Entry Upon Land for Inspection and Other Purposes) (distinguishes between electronically stored information and "documents")
  • Civil Rule 37 (Failure to Make Disclosure or Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions) (creates a "safe harbor" that protects a party from sanctions for failing to provide electronically stored information lost because of the routine operation of the party's computer system)
  • Civil Rule 45 (Subpoena) (technical amendments that conform to other proposed amendments regarding discovery of electronically stored information)
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