I mentioned when I got back from Hong Kong that the eDiscovery roundtable organised by Epiq Systems and Asian Legal Business had been told of an interesting development – that the Hong Kong judiciary are working on a pilot scheme for the management of  electronic documents.

This was brought to us by Menachem Hasofer, a partner at Mayer Brown JSM, one of the most active law firm promoters of proportionate eDiscovery in Hong Kong.

There has not been any formal announcement of this work, but the following wording has been approved for release:

“The Hong Kong Judiciary is actively engaged in creating a pilot scheme for discovery and inspection of electronically stored documents in the Commercial List. The pilot scheme is expected to be implemented by way of a Practice Direction (PD) to be issued in the first quarter of 2014. Preparation of the PD is presently a work in progress. The Judiciary expects to release a draft of the PD for consultation in the final quarter of 2013, at which time it will hear views from the wider legal profession and other concerned stakeholders on the proposals contained in the consultation draft of the PD.”

This is obviously good news for those who believe that it is very much for the court to take a lead in encouraging the proper discovery of electronic documents within the bounds of proportionality. It makes sense for the pilot scheme to be limited to the Commercial List to begin with.

I look forward to getting involved in the consultation later this year and will bring more news as I have it.

Home