Recommind are hosting a webinar on Wednesday July 21, 2010 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST with the title The UK e-Disclosure Questionnaire – Its Implications for Law Firms. It is the third in a series of webinars which I have done with Jason Robman, Assistant General Counsel at Recommind. Registration is here.
Parties to civil litigation are already required to discuss their sources of electronic documents before the first case management conference. The source for this obligation, and of similar duties to discuss formats for exchange and the use of keywords etc, is the practice direction to Part 31 CPR which is almost universally ignored.
The point of the new questionnaire, which is required only in limited circumstances, is to serve as an agenda for those discussions. Lawyers are expected to identify the potential sources of disclosable documents as well as some obviously useful information like date ranges and key custodians. It is better to flush out any disagreements about such things before disclosure is given rather than afterwards.
I am a member of Senior Master Whitaker’s working party which drafted the questionnaire and the proposed practice direction through which it is invoked. The purpose of the webinar is to show what is covered by the Questionnaire and what the implications are for law firms using it.
eDisclosure Information Project 