eDisclosure Information Project

For the avoidance of doubt…

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Chris Dale

Those of you excited by my report yesterday of a District Judge striking out both statements of case for failure to comply with a practice direction did, I hope, get to the bottom, where the words “fool” and “1 April” occurred close to each other.

I hope also that I am not understood to be advocating such tough action, not at a first CMC anyway. Nevertheless, the fictional Judge Solomon Dredd was not wrong to draw attention to the requirements of Paragraph 2A.2 of the Practice Direction to Part 31, nor to point out that failure to comply with a rule, order or practice direction entitles the court to strike out a statement of case under Part 3.4(2)(c) CPR. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, eDiscovery, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Judge strikes out

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Chris Dale

It is a source of curiosity to US and Australian litigation lawyers that we in the UK have so little case law on pre-trial procedures. District Judge Solomon Dredd made an order at a Case Management Conference today which should lead to an interesting appeal.

He struck out the statements of case of both parties at a first CMC for failure to discuss electronic sources of documents. He drew attention to the obligation in this regard in Paragraph 2.A2 of the Practice Direction to Part 31 CPR, and to the power given by Part 3.4(2)(c) CPR to strike out where there has been “a failure to comply with a rule, practice direction or court order”. Continue reading →

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How do I find out about electronic disclosure?

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Chris Dale

The e-Disclosure Information Project began in response to a perceived need for different players in the e-disclosure field to know more about what the others were doing. In the last few months, I have heard or heard of things like:

We know we ought to be doing something about e-disclosure but we don’t know where to start (after a lecture). Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Court Rules, Courts, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDisclosure Conferences, eDiscovery, Legal Technology, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

See the Rule Committee in action

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Chris Dale

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee is having an open meeting on 13 June 2008. I wrote about last year’s one (Rule Committee Open Meeting) in a manner simultaneously respectful and tongue-in-cheek – respectful in that the Rule Committee does an important and under-regarded job well, tongue-in-cheek because I wanted you to read it without nodding off.

I will not repeat what I said last year about the Rule Committee’s statutory terms of reference, but it is worth saying again that it is no small matter to devise a rule which potentially has application (subject to value limits) across all courts and in all circumstances. Those who criticised the Commercial Court Long Trials Recommendations on the grounds that they were not a rewrite of the CPR seem to have overlooked the virtue of devising practice and procedures within the existing rules. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Litigation Support, Ministry of Justice | Leave a comment

LiST Group expands

Posted on March 28, 2008 by Chris Dale

I have written appreciatively about the work of the Litigation Support Technology Group – LiST – on my web site. LiST is a think-tank, whose members – all skilled and experienced litigation support people in law firms and analogous organisations – have spent a great deal of time working through the issues which they come across in giving and receiving electronic documents and other data in litigation.

LiST does not purport to address directly the needs of those who are starting out with electronic disclosure – that is my job, but much of what I talk and write about is informed by what LiST does and by discussions with its members. Thought-leadership needs both tiers – new ideas evolve amongst the experts and their wider application needs a different mouth-piece. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDisclosure Conferences, eDiscovery, LiST, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Directions initiative in Birmingham

Posted on March 28, 2008 by Chris Dale

Practitioners in the Birmingham Mercantile Court are being sent a draft order for directions which includes provisions aimed at tighter case management. Why is this useful, and what if you genuinely think that the proposed order should not apply in your case?

I reported (Commercial judges spell out case management intentions ) that the prime movers behind the Commercial Court Recommendations had emphasised that their procedures for streamlining case management were applicable, where proportionate, in any court. This follows from the fact that the procedures – now having a trial period from February to November – involved no amendments to the Rules, and all fit within the court’s management and discretionary powers. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

H5 gets safe harbor certification

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Chris Dale

H5, the high-end provider of automated document analysis and information risk management services for the legal industry, has obtained safe harbor certification from the US Federal Trade Commission.

Most US companies whose business involves handling EU-derived data now have such certification, and it is safe to assume that if a company of H5’s standing has not got it it already, it is because they have chosen not to rush. Whether this implies a new interest in EU markets is hard to say. I hope so, because the H5 approach is one worth considering for lawyers and corporates with very large data collections who just want the result at a known cost rather than the burden of getting there themselves. Continue reading →

Posted in Data Protection, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, EU Safe Harbor, H5, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Summation back in the UK

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Chris Dale

Summation is one of the older litigation support software companies – it was founded in 1988. It has made a few attempts to break into the UK market but these fizzled out mainly (to my eye) for lack of a local team and the follow-up which that brings. Now it is back here, and this time with proper backing.

I have not seen it properly for a long time – my attempt to do so at LegalTech in New York last year was defeated by one of those glassy-eyed salesmen who look over your shoulder whilst they talk in the hope of seeing a more important customer, and I did not bother to go back this year. Memo to all litigation software salesmen: the very big UK firms already have preferred systems, and the market which will grow lies in the tiers below them. If someone says he speaks for those firms, don’t ignore him, just in case he runs a blog and an information project which reaches out to that market. Continue reading →

Posted in Courts, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Epiq Systems, Litigation Support, Summation | Leave a comment

Defensibility of the UK e-Disclosure process

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Chris Dale

Do the UK courts ever question the manner in which electronic evidence was collected? It is a source of much contention in the US but we have little case law directly on the point here. It is clearly vital to get it right, and equally clear that not everyone does, but why do we not hear more about it?

I listened to a webinar last week. Moderated by Patrick Burke, Assistant General Counsel at Guidance Software, it covered the steps which companies ought to take to be ready for litigation or for a regulatory investigation. Guidance has more than a passing interest in the subject, since their EnCase software is perhaps the best-known of the products which allows a company to take an image of an entire drive or of targeted documents and other data which may be required for disclosure. The speakers were at pains to stress that EnCase is not the only available solution.

I was one of them, bringing a UK perspective to the discussion. The others were Don Little, Corporate Counsel for Rolls Royce in the US, and John Rosenthal, Co-Head of the e-Discovery Group at Howrey LLP. Guidance are sponsors of the UK-based E-Disclosure Information Project which I run – my sponsors have in common that they are all interested in the UK rules, the trends and best practice in e-Disclosure, not just in selling things.

Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, FoxData, FRCP, Guidance Software, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Another e-Disclosure event in Birmingham

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Chris Dale

A second talk to Law Society members in Birmingham revealed more enthusiasm for electronic disclosure than one might expect given the amount actually done. How do we translate that enthusiasm into action? The only action required is to ask a supplier or two for quotations to inform your decision-making

It was back to Birmingham last night for the second round of talks about e-Disclosure given by me and His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC. As before, the event was organised by the Law Society’s indefatigable West Midlands Regional Manager, Clive Black, and hosted by Pinsent Masons, whose Mark Surguy originally introduced me to Birmingham.

We had an audience of more than 30, which means that over 90 people in all have turned out for these events. They came mainly from local firms of all sizes, with some in-house lawyers amongst them.

These talks are introductory in nature, and distinct from the harder-edged practical-cum-legal training sessions which I am about to embark on around the country for the Law Society. I opened with a summary of what we were trying to achieve – the spread of information about the rules, the available technology, and the way in which the courts are taking a firmer grip on management of cases. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Outsourcing | Leave a comment

Anacomp captures new sources of information

Posted on March 18, 2008 by Chris Dale

Anacomp announces new alliances which bring hosted capture to its already broad range of services. The trend towards a one-stop shop will appeal to many.

Anacomp, best known until last year for its docHarbor document repository, has taken a further step towards offering a full service solution for data handling. It first came to attention on my patch – litigation and regulatory disclosure – last year with the acquisition of the highly-regarded document review application CaseLogistix. This seemed a sound move, giving an attractive front-end to encourage data into Anacomp’s enormous storage capacity.

Earlier this year, it turned its attention to the other end of the process – getting data in – by an alliance with IPRO which integrated IPRO’s eCapture application into CaseLogistix. The aim was to provide a seamless data acquisition path from first import into IPRO through to display in CaseLogistix. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, CaseLogistix, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Epiq Systems | Leave a comment

E-Disclosure conferences in London 2008

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Chris Dale

There are several e-Disclosure conferences in London this year, including a couple which have not been seen in this space for a bit. Conference organisers have a keen eye for what is topical and have obviously decided that 2008 is the year in which people will want to know about e-Disclosure.

So they should: the Commercial Court Recommendations and the new spirit of judicial proactivity in case management are not the only factors which will make it necessary to be on top of this subject. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, Document Retention, eDisclosure, eDisclosure Conferences, ILTA, IQPC, Legal Technology, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

The Qualcomm CREDO Program

Posted on March 11, 2008 by Chris Dale

The judge who heard the sanctions part of the Qualcomm case set out a program for devising an action plan to prevent future disclosure violations. UK companies may like to measure their own preparedness against it.

On 30 January I finished a post about the sanctions judgment in Qualcomm v Broadcomm, promising two further articles about it – one on the comprehensive Case Review and Enforcement of Discovery Obligations (“CREDO”) program which Magistrate Judge Barbara Major ordered as part of the judgment, and one expanding on the implications of the judgment for UK lawyers.

I was immediately assailed by a reader who suggested that by the title to the first article – The implications of Qualcomm for UK lawyers – I had already promised more than I had delivered in respect of the latter point. That was possibly true, but I reckoned that 2,000 words on the judgment itself was enough to be getting on with. Other things have kept me busy since then and I have not got back to it.

There were further developments on the sanctions side of this case last week, so I thought I had better cover the original CREDO point. The first round, at least, of the “comprehensive case review” has taken place. What were its intentions, and why may it be relevant to those who practice in this area in the UK? Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Courts, Discovery, Document Retention, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Kroll, Legal Technology, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Conference focuses on ADR and Costs

Posted on March 8, 2008 by Chris Dale

CLAN, the Commercial Litigation Association, is running a conference on 13 March with an emphasis on Alternative Dispute Resolution and costs.

Called Practical Challenges for Modern Commercial Litigators, it addresses issues including

Litigation funding
ADR: what the future holds
Costs: the hot issues
Fees, Billing and Value: Stop the clock? Continue reading →

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Discovering what to do about e-disclosure

Posted on March 7, 2008 by Chris Dale

The paucity of blog postings recently does not imply that there is nothing to write about On the contrary, there is too much going on to stop and write it all up. A quick summary of what has come up in the last couple of weeks gives you some idea of what the E-Disclosure Information Project does.

First, a recap on what it is for.

The broad idea is to promote understanding of e-disclosure by acting as a link between all those who have an interest in e-Disclosure – corporations, practitioners, suppliers and the courts. The expression “to have an interest” does not necessarily imply actual overt expressions of interest, nor even a recognition that the subject is of relevance. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDisclosure Conferences, eDiscovery, LexisNexis, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

UK judge flies e-Disclosure flag in New York

Posted on March 6, 2008 by Chris Dale

His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC of the Birmingham Mercantile Court went to New York last week to take part in a judicial panel on the subject of eDisclosure. The resulting debate should make audiences sit up on both sides of the Atlantic.

We are well used to US judges coming to London to tell us how discovery of documents is managed in US courts. We hear from them what works and what does not work, what problems they encounter, and what methods they are evolving to deal with them.

You might think it rather odd that we have to import foreign judicial talent to tell us about a concept we invented, but I have heard more US judges speak here on the subject than English ones. This year I have been involved in the planning of a few e-Disclosure conferences. The draft programmes usually contain a hopeful slot marked “Judges Panel”. A somewhat paradoxical reason given for the absence of judges willing to speak is that they see too much emphasis in the UK conference programmes on the 2006 Amendments to the US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Let’s just recap on that: the only judges willing to speak on e-Disclosure are American ones who necessarily speak about the FRCP. English judges don’t come and speak because there is too much about the FRCP. The expression vicious circle comes to mind. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDisclosure Conferences, eDiscovery, FRCP, Guidance Software, IQPC | Leave a comment

An effective remedy for prolixity

Posted on February 27, 2008 by Chris Dale

I reported earlier today (Commercial Court judges set out their case management intentions) on the Commercial Court judges’ intention to limit the length of pleadings, witness statements etc as part of their firm commitment to cut the crap (they did not, I should add, put it like that, not in express terms anyway).

I owe to Mark Dingle at Simmons & Simmons a pointer to a case which is right on the point. It is not exactly current, dating as it does from 1595, and it involves a defendant called Weldon. It would not surprise anyone who practices in this area to find that Derby v Weldon had been running that long, but this case began even longer ago than that long-running saga, and the plaintiff was one Mylward. It may have been a different Weldon. Continue reading →

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Commercial Court judges set out their case management intentions

Posted on February 27, 2008 by Chris Dale

A well-attended meeting of the Commercial Litigators’ Association on Monday was left in no doubt that the Commercial Court judges intend to follow closely the recommendations of the Commercial Court Long Trial Working Party

Allen & Overy were the hosts on 25 February when Mr Justice Richard Aikens, Mrs Justice Gloster and Mr Justice Andrew Smith led a panel session to talk about the practical effect of the Commercial Court Recommendations, which took effect on 1 February, and to invite questions and feedback on them.

Sir Richard Aikens was the chairman of the Working Party. Dame Elizabeth Gloster DBE was both a member of the Working Party and, it became clear, the prime author of the checklist which converts the Recommendations into a step-by-step guide. Sir Andrew Smith is the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court. If we needed a sign that this is being taken seriously, the fielding of this team was it. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Networking thoughts after LegalTech

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Chris Dale

The LegalTech cud is still being chewed. The graph below show page views on this blog down to today, with an encouraging upward trend. The actual visits are not huge in absolute terms – 163 page views on one day last week is the record – but interest seems to be growing in what has been a minority activity in the UK.

That, incidentally, is the point of publishing the graph – we do not have many pointers as to how many people want to know about the subject. We know that many suppliers seem busy enough, but there is no composite figure for that. The readership of a single-issue web site gives us some feel for the level of interest.

The aim, of course, is to make this a mainstream activity for anyone who litigates here with any volume of electronic data, and the blog is only one of the initiatives which are in hand. There are a number of conferences planned in which I am involved in various capacities – as co-chair, facilitator, speaker or writer. There is bigger emphasis on the UK perspective in this year’s London-based international programmes, quite apart from those which focus exclusively on the CPR. I am happy to field any interest in these conferences and to point you in the right direction for whatever your interests are. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDisclosure Conferences, eDiscovery, FRCP, Litigation Support, Trilantic | Leave a comment

The Portability of H5’s Process

Posted on February 17, 2008 by Chris Dale

Contrary to my assumptions, H5’s very different approach to document review can be made available in the UK on data hosted here. Those with bigger cases should consider adding H5 to their list of possible solutions

I had breakfast with Michael Morneault and Terence Sweeney of H5 whilst I was in New York. The venue, Sarabeth’s Central Park South, which overlooks the bottom end of Central Park, would warrant a review of its own, but that is by the way.

I met Mike at LegalTech last year in a venue too dark to allow me to put a face to the name. I was intrigued by H5’s very different way of handling large amounts of electronic data and we kept in touch over the ensuing year.

Reduced to its simplest, H5 take over the whole process of extracting, refining and reviewing electronic sources of data, leaving the lawyers or corporate clients to focus on strategy, evaluation and assessment of risk or outcome. Put like that, it sounds as if the client is simply outsourcing the grunt work, but H5 are to conventional outsourcing what a Rolls Royce is to a donkey cart. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, EU Safe Harbor, H5, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Access your data with eMAG

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Chris Dale

One of the many bonuses of going to LegalTech is the chance to talk to people whom one knows or knows of but never gets the chance to see – thus the apparently odd remark in my post Why no UK lawyers at LegalTech that I go there to see people from the UK. To see them here, one needs to make an appointment, catch a train and generally impose a degree of formality. At LegalTech you start chatting in the bar. Most of the conversation, even in the bar, is about the subject which brought us all to New York.

I was talking one evening to Ian Bartlett of eMAG Solutions about proportionate searches for documents – proportionality in e-Disclosure is my main focus, and extracting data from electronic media is eMAG’s business. Ian challenged my assertion that the recovery of data from tape was necessarily expensive. Continue reading →

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EPIQ Systems and ECM join forces

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Chris Dale

A long working relationships between Epiq Systems and Effective Case Management (ECM) reached a natural culmination on 1 February when the two businesses were combined. Tony Ratcliffe, the founding owner of ECM becomes a member of Epiq’s London office team. Continue reading →

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LDSI and LiveReview

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Chris Dale

I am not sure how I have worked in the litigation support industry for 15 years without meeting Noel Kilby, nor why it should, eventually, have been easier to do so in LDSI’s office in New York when we are both based in the UK.

That is how it turned out, however. I went, with Mark Dingle of Simmons & Simmons, to meet Noel, to see LDSI’s offices, and to have a look at their in-house document review application, called LiveReview. Continue reading →

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Howrey sets up in India

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Chris Dale

Howrey, the US and global law firm known as much for its trial and litigation support services as for its legal practice, has opened an office in Pune, India, to handle its document management and similar functions. This, as the LAW.COM article about it suggests, combines the benefits of a well-educated but relatively low-paid work-force with the quality control which comes from running the show yourself.

Taking in such outsourced work has contributed much to India’s economy recently, and it is attractive in theory to consider delegating the labour-intensive work involved in litigation coding. Many US law firms are doing just that, but UK firms have been slower to go down this route. One reason is exactly the concerns over quality control which Howrey aims to beat with its own facility; another is the EU data protection and privacy rules. There is certainly some work going from the UK – and some predict an increase in the next year – but not as much as India would like. Continue reading →

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Guidance on the Human Factor in eDiscovery

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Chris Dale

My first port of call in New York last week was Patrick Burke, Assistant General Counsel at Guidance Software. I did a webinar with Patrick over Christmas (Americans don’t really do Christmas I discover – the last e-mail in on Christmas Eve came from Patrick, as did the first one of Boxing Day) and it was good to meet him at last after the hours of discussion we had about that.

I first came across Guidance Software at the IQPC conference in London last May, when Victor Limongelli (now CEO of the company) gave a talk which impressed because of his sure grasp of the UK court rules. Regular readers will know that I focus closely on the matching roles of rules and technology as weapons to keep the costs down, and it is rare to find any supplier, still less a US one, who articulates that viewpoint. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, Document Retention, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDisclosure Conferences, eDiscovery, FRCP, Guidance Software, Legal Technology, LegalTech, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Basketball pointers for litigation management

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Chris Dale

eDiscovery Tools is an Australian company which makes software for processing e-mail and other electronic documents for litigation and similar purposes. Its main product is eDiscovery Processor, used by law firms, corporate clients, government departments and litigation support bureaux to extract and index full text and metadata from hundreds of file types and to export the results into a format ready for the majority of litigation support platforms, including FTI Ringtail, Concordance and CT Summation.

It caught my eye at LegalTech last year, and stuck in my mind partly for its obvious power, flexibility and user interface, but mainly because of the demonstrator’s reaction when I asked about an audit feature – an obscure point to do with removed attachments. The chap stared into the distance for a moment and said no, that was not covered – but if I were to ask the same question in a month’s time, I would find that it was. Continue reading →

Posted in Australian courts, Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, eDiscovery Tools, LegalTech, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Trilantic sessions round off LegalTech

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Chris Dale

As in previous years, Trilantic organised three sessions for the last day of LegalTech. They are generally less formal than the other sessions and, as I have said elsewhere, take important subjects with a light tone.

I thought I would summarise what was said, but cannot in fact do so because I got an e-mail a few minutes into the first one, offering an opportunity to see someone whom I very much wanted to meet. My account of the sessions will necessarily be light on content.

The first one was called International eDiscovery Rules, Standards and Challenges. The Moderator was George Socha and the panelists were Browning Marean of DLA Piper, Laura Kibbe of Pfizer, Vince Neicho of Allen & Overy and Michelle Mahoney of Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Continue reading →

Posted in Australian courts, Case Management, Commercial Court, Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, FRCP, Litigation Support, Trilantic | Leave a comment

Trilantic delivers Translation Services

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Chris Dale

Trilantic has launched Trilantic Translation Services (TTS) which, they say, is the first translation service which uses the accuracy of human translation with the power of technology.

TTS is described as a robust, highly effective, fast translation service [which] is considerably more accurate than any of the automated and Web based tools currently available. The key ingredient is a case-specific translation dictionary which is built up when the foreign-language documents are loaded into the system.

Trilantic say that the average human translator can handle about 2,500 words per day, making this stage a time-consuming and expensive one – especially as it is done across the whole document population, before culling has removed those which are irrelevant. TTS can translate at the rate of 6,000 pages per hour, which means that the inclusion of a high proportion of foreign-language documents need not delay the lawyer review.

Key documents can be manually translated later if that is required for admissibility.

For more information, contact Nigel Murray nigel.murray@trilantic.co.uk at Trilantic on +44 20 7042 1000

Home

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Trilantic sets out EU Data Protection Rules

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Chris Dale

The EU Data Protection Rules – Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council – On the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data to give its snappy full name – are the usual bureaucrats’ quagmire, giving the impression that their primary purpose is to provide job opportunities for Belgian civil servants.

Whatever we may think of them, we cannot avoid them, and those who work in this area must tread carefully. A thank-you, therefore, to Trilantic, who have summarised them all, with links to each country from a clickable map, and to the text of the relevant Articles. They prudently accompany it with a Disclaimer.

The guide can be found here.

Home

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Anacomp and IPRO announce strategic alliance

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Chris Dale

Anacomp has announced an alliance with IPRO which will integrate IPRO’s eCapture software application into CaseLogistix.

Anacomp does rather good press releases this days and I cannot better their own description

The integration between IPRO eCapture and CaseLogistix eliminates batch transfers between the applications and the associated human and system overhead. Users will be able to load large sets of unknown documents, files, and materials more rapidly and in a completely native workflow, eliminating the costly and time-consuming process of converting native files to TIFF images and extracting the text files. Continue reading →

Posted in CaseLogistix, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Legal Technology, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Anacomp introduces hosted CaseLogistix

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Chris Dale

Anacomp, the business process solutions company which acquired CaseLogistix last year, has announced that it is now making CaseLogistix available on-demand via its hosted docHarbor information platform.

CaseLogistix was anyway one of the most interesting litigation support review applications on the market and was a natural choice when Anacomp went looking for a litigation front-end for its vast hosting facilities. It is hard to argue with Anacomp’s own description of CaseLogistix as a powerful and versatile litigation review and integration solution available today, providing a complete system for streamlined electronic document organization, annotation, discovery management and production. Continue reading →

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Why no UK lawyers at LegalTech?

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Chris Dale

“When does the full LegalTech blog get released” asks a reader, obviously impatient with my chatty discursive wanderings around the subject. I assume he expects a full narrative, starting at Session 1 on Day 1 and ending with an extended analysis of the wider implications for the industry of everything announced, propounded or concluded during the three days, with particular reference to their implications for the UK litigation support industry.

Well, I am sorry to disappoint, but that is not what I go to LegalTech for. You can read all about those things elsewhere, as indeed can I. What you can’t do elsewhere is have all the meetings and the conversations, catch up with the gossip from the UK, the US and Australia, and sniff the breeze. I had four fixed meetings in one morning, but mostly I bumped into people in bars or corridors, hailed or was hailed by people I knew – and, in some cases, by people I did not know who read this blog. Continue reading →

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Service with a snarl undoes technology miracles

Posted on February 11, 2008 by Chris Dale

Good technology must be matched by good people, and it is often the people who let it down. Any technology budget must include a large element for support and training. It is not just the salesmen who need a good client manner.

I was talking at LegalTech to John Turner, Chief Technology Officer at Anacomp who produce and host the on-line review application CaseLogistix. The conversation turned to the cost of delivering e-disclosure solutions. It is not in fact my view that the technology is too expensive – some is over-priced, but the problem it tackles is immense, some of it is near-miraculous in its power, and the alternative – in lawyer hours or abandoned litigation – is hardly cheap.

The main expense, John Turner said, was not the software but the support, adding (with some justification) that CaseLogistix was more user-friendly than most. The support is critical to a successful roll-out and, assuming that the purchase was properly specified in the first place, it is the support which makes for success or failure. It it not just an add-on, but a critical component, without which the technology investment is wasted. Continue reading →

Posted in CaseLogistix, Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Legal Technology, LegalTech, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Pocketing the key technology at LegalTech

Posted on February 11, 2008 by Chris Dale

My new Blackberry helps me organise what is important. It does not decide what is important. The same should be true of e-disclosure applications. Both are an aid to efficient processes, not a substitute for them.

My heading may have brought you here under false pretences. This is not, as you may have hoped, my assessment of the new developments being announced in the speeches or on display at the booths. The key technology so far as I am concerned is in my pocket and on my lap-top. Continue reading →

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Feeling at home back at LegalTech in New York

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Chris Dale

You come to this site, I know, for sharp, incisive, witty stuff about the e-disclosure world, the court rules, the case law, the new developments. There is plenty of that at LegalTech here in New York, but those who do not come here may like a feel for the event, the place and the context. Continue reading →

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Legal Technology Awards 2008

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Chris Dale

The Legal Technology Awards 2008 happened five days and an ocean away – two oceans, in fact, one called the Atlantic and one poured from various bottles on both sides of the Atlantic. Both time and tide mean that my recollections are necessarily hazy, so if you want an authoritative account of who won what, I suggest you go to the LTA’s own site.

Waiting for the Oxford bus at the top of Park Lane at 2:00am on the first morning of February is a sobering experience. Just as well really. Nigel Murray of Trilantic, whose guest I was, had pressed the first glass of champagne into my hand at 6:15 the previous evening. I drained the last at 01:30. In between came dinner (rather better than one expects on these occasions), the awards themselves, and several hours of shouted conversation in a crowded bar. Continue reading →

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Long Trials trial gets longer trial

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Chris Dale

Mr Justice Andrew Smith, Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court, has issued a statement about the Report of the Commercial Court Long Trials Recommendations.

The Recommendations will be put into practice from 1 February. The trial period, however, will run until the end of November 2008, and not just to July as was originally envisaged.

The Statement makes it clear that practitioners will be expected to be familiar with the recommendations and to conduct litigation accordingly. Where relevant, cases which have already had a Case Management Conference will be reviewed to see if further case management orders would be appropriate.

Mr Justice Andrew Smith makes the point that, despite its title, the Report does not relate only to long or complex cases. He envisages that its provisions will apply to most cases in the Commercial Court. Some of the ideas might, indeed, be used elsewhere – the Disclosure Schedule, for example, is a useful aid to identifying areas of agreement or otherwise as to disclosure sources in any case where there are many documents.

In addition to the Report itself, there is a related press release and some articles on this site which relate or refer to the Commercial Court Recommendations.

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The cost of printing electronic documents

Posted on January 30, 2008 by Chris Dale

Charles Christian’s Orange Rag has a helpful article called Think before you Print which sets out the costs of printing documents for review – which involve more than the bare printing costs.

It is by no means a finger-wagging, tut-tutting article. It accepts that many people like to work from paper, and includes some suggestions from Pinpoint Global as to some sensible culling which might be done before the whole lot is sent to the print-room.

It is worth bearing these costs in mind at the outset. A decision not to review documents electronically is often made on the strength of an up-front quotation which is the more difficult to accept precisely because it is seen up-front. Printing costs, by contrast, are seen only in retrospect, usually spread between several quarterly bills. If these prospective expenses were factored into the costs estimates given to the clients, the apparent expense of electronic review would diminish.

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The impact of Qualcomm for UK lawyers

Posted on January 30, 2008 by Chris Dale

The sanctions judgment in Qualcomm v Broadcomm emphasises for UK lawyers the apparent conflict between their duty to ensure that their clients give full disclosure and their parallel obligation to keep disclosure proportionate. The two duties are not in fact irreconcilable, but it can be hard to see that and harder to achieve it. This article looks at what the judgment actually covered.

My article Predicting Litigation Responsibility for 2008 was written overnight on January 7. Allowing for the 8 hour time difference between Oxford and San Diego, it was written at about the time that Magistrate Judge Barbara Major was delivering the judgment in which she sanctioned Qualcomm Inc. to the tune of $8,568,633.24, and reported several of Qualcomm’s lawyers to the California State Bar. Although it is the sanctions which caught the eye, what the judge said about the responsibility of individuals is perhaps more important. Continue reading →

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Discovery Mining passes source code audit

Posted on January 29, 2008 by Chris Dale

Discovery Mining has announced that the source code of its Web-hosted online review application has passed a rigourous security audit.

The security of the data we put into the hands of others is a hot topic at the moment, as Gordon Brown’s Government carelessly distributes our personal information far and wide. Fortunately, most companies who handle discovery data have rather higher standards than Gordon Brown’s Government, and it is no bad marketing point to be able to prove it. Continue reading →

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Spotting the turning-point at the starting-point

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Chris Dale

The main character in the film The Butterfly Effect explores every possible event in his search for the right answer, only identifying the correct turning point at the end of the last reel, after much unnecessary tribulation. The aim of close court management of litigation is to find the turning point much earlier.

In his speech to an e-disclosure conference last week, His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC emphasised that the judge’s role is to find the facts. His context was the selection of the documents which proved the facts, and the desirability of identifying the key issues – and thence the key documents – as early as possible so as to reach the right conclusion with the minimum of time and expense.

Looking in retrospect, even the most partisan of parties can usually see how a court reached the factual conclusion that it did reach. I don’t mean they necessarily agree with the weight given to any one fact, still less that they accept the judge’s application of the law to those facts, but by the time the witnesses have performed (or not) and the spotlight has focused on a handful of documents to the exclusion of the rest, a set of key facts – or perhaps just one – is seen as the turning point.

And everybody, but particularly the loser, wishes that the significance of that fact, now so obviously the turning point, had been seen as such very much earlier. Everybody could have been saved a great deal of time, trouble and expense if they had spotted earlier what they now see as the nub of the thing. Continue reading →

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E-Disclosure – What does the court expect?

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Chris Dale

His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC told a London conference audience what the UK courts expect from those who appear before them when electronic disclosure is a big element in a case.

I have written separately about the conference organised by Marcus Evans in London on 14-15 January 2008. His Honour Judge Simon Brown and I were speakers on the second day with a session billed as The Mutual Expectations of Clients, Lawyers and the Courts.

The first day included two sessions which prepared the ground which we had proposed to cover, not least a very interesting Panel session on reducing the costs in which Judge Brown took part and which had ranged widely. That allowed us to take a less structured approach than had been planned. Continue reading →

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Growing interest in e-disclosure sources

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Chris Dale

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words, so to save a lot of typing, I give you the graph which my Blog host, WordPress, produces to show the hits since I began the blog a year ago.

The biggest jump comes in July 2007, when I spoke to the User Group of the Birmingham Mercantile Court and started writing about the interaction between the CPR, the difficulties of e-disclosure and the technical solutions which exist to solve them. The graph goes steadily upwards from there, partly because the range of topics increased, partly because other web source started to link to my blog, and partly because of collateral publicity from speaking or from printed material.

One does not expect big numbers of visitors for a relatively esoteric subject – no one wanders into a site like this by accident – so the visitors must be presumed to be interested ones. Continue reading →

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Heavyweight appointments by H5

Posted on January 24, 2008 by Chris Dale

H5, the San Franciso-based provider of automated document analysis and information risk management services for the legal industry, has made two top-flight appointments in the last few days.

Raymond L Ocampo Jr, former senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Oracle Corporation has been apointed to the board of directors.

Paul Polking former executive vice president, general counsel, and member of the Management Operating Committee for Bank of America Corporation has joined H5’s strategic advisory board. Continue reading →

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Intimidation by Terabyte – scope of e-disclosure

Posted on January 24, 2008 by Chris Dale

The judgment in Hands v Morrison Construction Services Ltd [2006] may have related to the special circumstance of an application for pre-action disclosure in the TCC, but it has some messages applicable to e-disclosure generally

We are very short on case law in the field of e-disclosure here, and even shorter on jokes, so to find a joke in a report of an e-disclosure application is a rarity twice over. M Briggs QC is almost certainly not the first to note the pun implicit in the word “terabyte” in the context of intimidating quantities of electronic document sources, but given the paucity of UK sources, his reference to it may well be a first in a UK judgment.

The case is Hands v Morrison Construction Services Ltd [2006] Adj.L.R. 06/16, reported as [2006] EWHC 2018 (Ch). I found it published by NADR, the Nationwide Academy for Dispute Resolution. If that is the only place it lurks in generally available published form then (with great respect to NADR), it is not surprising that it is not more widely known. That is my excuse, anyway, for not coming across it until Ray Werbicki of Steptoe & Johnson referred to it at a conference last week. Continue reading →

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Debating the Aikens Report

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Chris Dale

I wrote on Friday (Give more credit to the Aikens Recommendations) with a more positive view of the Long Trial Report and Recommendations than had been given by John Reynolds of White & Case (Aikens misses the big picture) in Legal Week.

Now Mr Justice Aikens, the Chairman of the Working Party, has weighed in with a restrained comment to the effect that the Recommendations do in fact have the emphasis on rigorous case management and the acceptance of the need for a culture change and for more judicial resources which Mr Reynolds sees as necessary. Continue reading →

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Irish Court rules on data extraction

Posted on January 18, 2008 by Chris Dale

Anyone involved in electronic discovery may be interested in a decision of the Irish Supreme Court in Dome Telecom v Eircom.

The point at issue was whether a party can be required to create a document as part of the discovery / disclosure exercise by extracting and collating electronic data into a report. The majority finding was that, whilst the exercise contemplated in this particular instance was disproportionately onerous, the principle was sound – that is, a party may, in an appropriate case, be made to collate data into a document which did not already exist. Continue reading →

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Give more credit to the Aikens Recommendations

Posted on January 18, 2008 by Chris Dale

John Reynolds, a partner in White & Case, shows less than enthusiasm for the Commercial Court Long Trials Report and Recommendations in an article published yesterday on Legal Week’s web site. The Recommendations deserve more credit.

The article, headed Aikens misses the big picture, is a difficult one to rebut in that, whilst the overriding impression is one of disappointment, it is hard to see what Mr Reynolds would have had the Working Party come up with in its place. The committee, he says “was never going to produce a shiny new rule book”, yet he says also that “revision of the CPR is overdue”. He criticises the Recommendations as being “light on case management” but acknowledges that “the judiciary needs to be far more rigorous in the using the case management powers the rules contain…the deployment of [which] cannot be legislated for in the CPR” and adds that ”we must use this opportunity to overhaul the CPR and the way it is applied”.

So what are you saying here, John? Do we need new rules or just better use of the ones we have? Do the rules need an overhaul or not – if the problem is the better use of the existing management powers, and if they “cannot be legislated for in the CPR”, then what needs revision? Continue reading →

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Marcus Evans conference – E-Discovery Strategies

Posted on January 16, 2008 by Chris Dale

A good e-Disclosure conference will make you want to know more or, at least, will ring an alarm bell in due course. There are pitfalls to know about and practice development opportunities being missed.

I am just back from a conference in London organised by Marcus Evans with the title E-Discovery and Document Management Strategies. The fact that I was one of the speakers does not disqualify me from saying that it was one of the best I have been to.

I will write separately about the session which I shared with His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC and which was, as you might guess, about the scope which the CPR gives to willing parties and an active judge to bring down the time and costs of e-disclosure.

Nor will I here try and summarise what each speaker said – it would be invidious to pick out any of them in what was a well-balanced programme, Actually, I will make one exception and pick out Browning Marean of DLA Piper US LLP, who displayed his usual knack of giving a near-universal viewpoint which transcends national boundaries and applies equally to large and small cases. It comes down to knowing your stuff and anticipating costs. Continue reading →

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Predicting litigation responsibility for 2008

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Chris Dale

The big changes in litigation for 2008 both concern responsibility – the authority and knowledge of the person who gives the Disclosure Statement and the direct responsibility at boardroom level for the time and cost of heavy litigation. Both represent risks for corporate clients and opportunity for lawyers and for technology suppliers.

My 2008 predictions have already appeared on the Computers & Law web site. One of them is obviously a joke – no-one seriously expects the Government to honour its commitment to invest in the civil courts at the level warranted by their importance to a civilised society, and to the international business which they generate. We don’t expect New Labour to honour any of its other promises or obligations, so why pick on this one?

The others are no-brainers – judges will start making strict e-Disclosure orders, law firms will recruit home workers for e-Disclosure, and corporate clients will add e-Disclosure expertise to the list of skills they expect from litigation teams. Continue reading →

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LDSI appoints Deborah Coram as UK MD

Posted on December 24, 2007 by Chris Dale

Legal Document Services International – LDSI – has appointed Deborah Coram as Managing Director of LDSI’s UK business operations.

Deborah Coram has a legal background and practiced at two major Australian law firms. She was head of international business development at CT Summation and Director of Sales and Marketing for CT CaseVault. She also built and managed a major litigation support company in Australia.

She was also involved in founding of the new ALSP (Association of Litigation Support Professionals), which is committed to the development of certifications and standards within the litigation support industry. The press release abut her appointment is here. Continue reading →

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An articled clerk in Gray’s Inn in the 1970s

Posted on December 12, 2007 by Chris Dale

An old name used by a web searcher stirs memories of typewritten lists of documents of long ago.

I keep a close eye on the web statistics from my web site and blog. They tell me, amongst other things, what people are putting into their search engines which find my pages, and that in turn tells me what to write about.

Most of the terms are modern ones. Today’s, for example, include document retention policy, outlook message metadata and tiff image in litigation as well as the names of people and products I have mentioned – and the terms I see are necessarily those which exist somewhere on my sites.

I had one yesterday which looked as out of place in my web stats as a coach and four on a motorway. It was Taylor Humbert solicitors. Continue reading →

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Australia updates Federal Court ediscovery rules

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Chris Dale

New court rules for handling electronic documents are expected in Australia before the end of 2007. They will bite on as few as 500 documents, there will be a court-appointed expert to manage cases, and there is a massive investment in the infrastructure of the courts. The UK will be left behind.

The reasoning and the arguments are the same as in the UK and the US. Articles about the pending rules somehow imply that Australia is behind us in this area, which is not my own impression as to e-discovery. Australia is way ahead of the UK in investment in the civil courts Continue reading →

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Commercial Court Long Trial Recommendations

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Chris Dale

The Report and Recommendations of the Commercial Court Long Trials Working Party was published on 6 December 2007. Its 83 pages deserve a closer look than time allows now, but we will have a quick summary of the passages relating to disclosure.

Its immediate context is long and complex trials and the management and preparation for them. The Commercial Court has long been the place where new ideas take root and the Commercial Court Guide has supplements to the CPR which, for the most part, can be used in any court where appropriate within the court’s discretion. The recommendations therefore have implications beyond the Commercial Court itself, and beyond the trial period which is to run from 1 February to 31 July 2008. Continue reading →

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Litigation insurers have an interest in eDisclosure

Posted on December 10, 2007 by Chris Dale

My heading is not a report that litigation insurers have actually shown an interest in electronic disclosure. They clearly have an interest, though, in the sense that their interests must lie in anything which has the potential to bring parties as quickly as possible to settlement or to court.

The subject comes up with the news that Herbert Smith is apparently the first firm of solicitors to approach a broker directly to find financial backing for a case (see Herbies blaze a trail with litigation funding move in the Lawyer today). The broker was Calunius Capital LLP.

This is getting to be an interesting market, with Allianz announcing in mid-October that it was launching a new fund, aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, to back what they see as “genune” claims – for which read, presumably, ones thought very likely to succeed. Continue reading →

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Victor Limongelli now CEO of Guidance Software

Posted on December 10, 2007 by Chris Dale

Guidance Software announced last week that Victor Limongelli has been appointed Chief Executive Officer.

I met Victor at a conference in London earlier this year. He is easy to spot – an American executive who speaks knowledgeably about the English court rules tends to stand out. His subject was Reducing the growing cost of eDisclosure and he was convincing on the need for UK and European corporations to (as he put it) “get their arms around their company’s e-mail and electronic documents” for litigation and regulatory reasons, to track suspicious activity by employees and – not least – to control the costs of doing business. Continue reading →

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First e-disclosure training for judges

Posted on November 29, 2007 by Chris Dale

I led an e-disclosure training session in Birmingham last week for a room-full of District Judges and Specialist Judges from Chancery and Mercantile Courts in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds.

We covered the Practice Direction to Part 31 CPR, the CPR provisions specifically relating to disclosure, and the discretionary and management powers which might be used, or better used, to reduce the time and costs of disclosure where there were electronic sources of information.

The result of the discussions between parties which the Practice Direction requires may well be that there are no electronic sources worth considering – but that cannot be determined if the discussion does not take place.

We then looked at the sources of electronic documents and the software and services which are available to help firms, whether they want to keep the work in house or send it out to others.

The primary conclusion was that the biggest single contribution to controlling time and expense would be a technology questionnaire sent out by the court before the first Case Management Conference. No formal or statutory authority is needed to use such a questionnaire and a draft exists – LiST (the Litigation Support Technology Group) annexed one to their draft Practice Direction for the use of IT in Civil Proceedings in July 2005.

My report on the day is on my web site in two parts – a summary of the ground covered and a commentary on the messages derived from it.

If any points arise which you would like to discuss, or if you would like a similar session to be given at your firm or company, please contact me.

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T3 – Trial Tactics and Technology in London

Posted on November 2, 2007 by Chris Dale

A mock eDiscovery hearing yesterday in front of real judges would have put UK litigation lawyers on notice of rough rides ahead if they are less than fully prepared to justify what has been done or not done to control the time and expense of Discovery. Where was the audience?

I have never been to a legal technology conference where they have to hold the crowds back with ropes. That, however, was the scene which greeted me as I approached the New Connaught Rooms in London yesterday for ALM Events’ show T3 Trial Tactics & Technology.

It turned out to be a double-booking – all those podgy girls in black tights and the skinny youths clutching musical instruments were there for the first auditions of Britain’s Got Talent. Perhaps Simon Cowell or Ant and Dec would pop up and give their view on the talent on the next floor, where ALM had gathered a large crowd of experts from both sides of the Atlantic under the title Confronting litigation and globalization of your data. Continue reading →

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Throw it over the wall Discovery

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Chris Dale

Both the legal and IT worlds have technical expressions and terms of art which tend to exclude outsiders. Litigation support and e-Disclosure have feet in both these camps and a reasonable share of terms which do not mean much to those not involved.

I came across an assertion in the Information Governance Engagement Area to the effect that “the days of traditional ‘throw it over the wall’ (TIOTW) e-Discovery are numbered”. Not just a catch-phrase, then, but an acronym and a link to a definition – Word Spy says it is a verb – “to pass a project or problem to another person or department without consulting with them or coordinating the transfer in any way.” Continue reading →

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US court rejects production of paper documents

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Chris Dale

The US Electronic Discovery Blog carries a story under the heading Court rejects paper production as inadequate and orders production in electronic format.

The court had suggested that “whatever is electronically available.. be made available in electronic format”. The Defendants produced paper and resisted the demand for electronically stored information (ESI) on the basis that the “extraordinary costs of production” were unduly burdensome.

The court ordered that ESI be produced from 50 custodians, including metadata, and ordered a meeting of experts without lawyers to agree a protocol for the production. The meeting seemed to have been productive at the time, but the producing party’s subsequent methodology was challenged and the court took the view that the meeting had not been as useful as had been hoped. Continue reading →

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Richard Susskind and the End of Lawyers

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Chris Dale

Richard Susskind’s long-term prediction that the work of lawyers will break up into “identifiable and discrete pieces” applies here and now to electronic Disclosure. The discrete stages of first identifying and culling, and only then analysing, document populations do not require either the same tools or necessarily the same people to perform them economically.

Professor Richard Susskind’s new book The End of Lawyers gets an outing in The Times this morning, with an invitation to readers to comment on his predictions. I doubt that the Times will take 1,250 words by way of comment on one narrow aspect of Susskind’s chieromancy, so I will put them here. The narrow aspect in question is e-Disclosure / e-Discovery. In that area, at least, I agree with him. Continue reading →

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E-Discovery conference in London January 2008

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Chris Dale

Marcus Evans, the international conference organiser, asked me some time ago to be a speaker at their E-Discovery and Document Management Strategies Conference in London on 14 and 15 January 2008.

The request coincided with the opportunity to organise e-Disclosure training for judges on the IT implications of making Disclosure orders at Case Management Conferences in UK litigation. The conference seemed a good way of telling corporate court users about what we were doing – I go to a lot of these conferences and few of them carry the e-Disclosure story beyond the stage where documents are being analysed by the lawyers. Continue reading →

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Useful pointer to US e-Discovery sources

Posted on October 18, 2007 by Chris Dale

The Information Governance Engagement Area has a link to a useful article which pulls together the key US sources on e-Discovery matters.

The article, by Robert Ambrogi in Law Technology News, is called EDD Bytes to feed your firm’s knowledge and is a jumping-off point for the key sources on electronic Discovery.

You wouldn’t want to sit down and read them all at a sitting, but it is a useful place to pick up a feel for what the key issues are in the US. This is important not just for the old idea that what happens there will happen here one day, but for the opposite – learning what to avoid by watching someone else go first.

This matters at a detail level – what applications work and which do not, what court rules in the FRCP help the process along and which help foul it up – but also with the broader picture. As with other aspects of Anglo-US relations, there are deep cultural differences hand in hand with the many similarities. Those of us who are keen to encourage e-Disclosure must be as alert to these as well as to the technical matters.

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Training for judges in e-Disclosure

Posted on October 18, 2007 by Chris Dale

“I have been asked to develop and deliver a training course for judges on the subject of e-disclosure. There are two broad headings – the nuts and bolts of the technology and the proactive use of the CPR to encourage parties to consider whether electronic disclosure may help to reduce the time and expense of litigation. The idea is that closer Case Management at the outset, fortified by an understanding of the available tools and methods, will cut the time and money wasted on otiose disclosure of irrelevant documents”.

This is the opening of my article called Training for Judges in e-Disclosure, first published on Computers & Law, the web site of the Society for Computers and Law. Continue reading →

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Electronic evidence and e-discovery forum 2007

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Chris Dale

The skills and tools developed for urgent regulatory compliance and forensic analysis have benefits for cost-effective electronic Disclosure in litigation.

I am just back from the Electronic Evidence and e-Discovery forum run by AKJ Associates, a two-day conference at which a stream of experts scared the hell out of companies by telling them about the perils of data control, the consequences of inadequate data control, and what they could do either (and preferably) to minimise the risks of potential problems, or to handle actual problems.

The speakers fell into three main categories – in house experts telling us what they have done, suppliers with products or services to address the issues, and academics to talk about the theory. If there was a heavy emphasis on selling the solutions – well, many of the attendees will have been grateful to know that there are solutions. Continue reading →

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Predicting the end of e-Discovery?

Posted on September 15, 2007 by Chris Dale

At first sight, a ruling made in Delaware last week appears to predict the end of e-Discovery. A closer reading reveals a terminological confusion and the common-sense conclusion that clients will find a different way of resolving their disputes if lawyers and courts do not speed up the process of getting to judgment. It applies in the UK as much as in the US

One of the difficulties faced by those of us interested in the courts’ role in managing e-Disclosure is the lack of reported outcomes of Case Management Conferences. We know from his speeches that Master Whitaker, the most active proponent of judicial intervention in this area, feels somewhat alone. We know that there are few new players exchanging their Disclosure information electronically. But CMCs go on behind closed doors as, generally, do the costs arguments afterwards.

They do things differently in the US, we think, and so they do. Very differently, to judge from a ruling made last week at a Scheduling Conference in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. Regular readers will know that I am an advocate of pragmatic approaches (within the Rules, of course) for finding the point where speed, accuracy and cost converge in the interests of getting a case heard justly. The Delaware judge has pragmatism. It took some re-reading, however, for me to appreciate it. Continue reading →

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IT goes a lot faster than people for discovery

Posted on September 14, 2007 by Chris Dale

My heading comes from an article called The Data Explosion at Forbes.com (you need to sign up as a member, or more easily found here) about H5, the San Francisco company specialising in large-scale document analysis and the management of information risk.

I cheat a little. The full quotation is “once you teach H5 this stuff, it goes a lot faster than people” and comes from a partner at Boies Schiller & Flexner. He was not suggesting that H5 have anything to learn about the use of technology to dig out the documents which matter. “This stuff” is the knowledge about the client’s business and the subject-matter of a particular case which H5 collect as their starting point for an assignment. Continue reading →

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US courts’ hard line on Discovery failures

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Chris Dale

The US courts are coming down heavily on inadequate Discovery of e-mail and other electronic sources of information, and accepting few excuses for non-compliance with the Rules. Events in a far away country of which we know little (as Chamberlain said of the German invasion of Czechoslovakia) or something to take note of in the UK?

The US Information Governance Engagement Area draws my attention to a white paper by InBoxer, Inc which draws together more than 50 US court rulings about email archiving and electronic disclosure under the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). Together they show the courts’ increasing unwillingness to tolerate excuses offered by parties for Discovery which is incomplete, inaccurate or slow. Continue reading →

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Small PDFs and best OCR for eDiscovery

Posted on September 11, 2007 by Chris Dale

Use Abbyy FineReader to OCR .tiff images and save to .pdf and then use Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional to save in JBIG2 format. It sounds a long route but the results are smaller and better than anything else I have found.

The client’s request seemed an obvious one – he wanted his .TIFF images turned into the smallest-sized Acrobat .PDFs with the best-quality OCR text saved within them. Having it actually stated as a requirement made me do some tests whose outcome was interesting.

For those who do not know, Acrobat .PDFs can be plain images or can have their text stored in them. Some litigation systems can make use of the stored text for searching purposes – Caselogistix among them. It is fairly obvious why you want the best-quality OCR, and no less clear why you want the smallest possible images – you pay for storage by the gigabyte, and the smaller the image the faster it comes up over the Web. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Lit Sup Technical, Litigation Support, OCR, PDF | Leave a comment

Agree on Disclosure – or the judge will decide for you

Posted on September 3, 2007 by Chris Dale

If the parties fail to agree on the handling of electronic sources of information as required by the Practice Direction to Part 31 CPR, the judge might impose his own ideas on them. The result may please neither side.

This article concerns a US case. Assume for the purposes of reading about it that the US “meet and confer” concept and the court’s powers to make discovery orders are similar in principle, if not in detail, to those given in our CPR. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, FRCP, LiST, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

E-Disclosure, Needles and Haystacks 3 – Keywords

Posted on August 31, 2007 by Chris Dale

This is the third article which looks at issues raised by Alex Charlton and Matthew Lavy in an article in the April / May 2007 edition of the SCL’s Computers & Law Magazine.

The opening article is here.

This section expands on the subject of keywords as a means of cutting down document populations. Keyword culls are a blunt instrument and prone to error, but may be the only cost-effective way to get the arguments heard. The CPR’s overriding objective may override the strict requirements of Part 31 – but you need to get your facts and your arguments in order.

In the second article, I looked at the source volumes available to the claimant – 8 million documents which were reduced by the use of keywords. 333 keywords were first applied. When that “failed to reduce the number of documents to a level that the claimant deemed to be appropriate for disclosure” (the emphasis is mine) a narrower range of 133 keywords was used. This brought the population down to 226,000 documents. It was subsequently reduced to 115,000 documents by the application of a new and agreed set of keywords.

I made various observations about this – as to the apparently unilateral decisions about the choice of keywords, as to the crudity of keywords as a means of hacking down the population, and as to the fallacious suggestion (as I saw it) implicit in the italicised passage above, that there is some quantity of documents which is objectively “appropriate”. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, Courts, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, H5, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

The Part 31 CPR obligation to discuss ESI

Posted on August 22, 2007 by Chris Dale

What were almost side-issues in Malletier v Dooney & Bourke, Inc are worth noting when considering the UK Part 31 CPR obligation to discuss ESI issues

I have a double interest at the moment in the scope of the English court rules about the obligation to “discuss any issues that may arise regarding searches for and the preservation of electronic documents” which arises in the Practice Direction to Part 31 CPR. Continue reading →

Posted in Data Protection, Discovery, Document Retention, eDisclosure, Legal Technology, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Getting the message across at the MoJ

Posted on August 22, 2007 by Chris Dale

I go to the Ministry of Justice web site from time to time, partly because I run a law firm’s web site and blog and need to keep abreast of things beyond my own subjects, and partly in the hope of finding the announcement of that massive investment in the civil court’s IT structure which was promised a decade ago. It is not there again today – tomorrow perhaps, or mañana as they say in Spain.

I did find a headline, though, which brought me up short: Jack Straw welcomes black gang violence initiative. I am not sure that this conveys quite the impression the writer intended, suggesting as it does that the Government will send round the Peckham Boyz if you neglect to provide a Home Information Pack or if you light up in the pub. Unpopular measures need radical initiatives to impose acquiescence. Continue reading →

Posted in Courts, Ministry of Justice, SEO, Web Sites and Blogs | Leave a comment

Too much EDD about EDD

Posted on August 22, 2007 by Chris Dale

…and too many ESIs about ESI. Those of us who watch the discovery and compliance industry have the same problem as the lawyers have with their clients’ documents – getting at the stuff which matters.

I have started reading the Information Governance Engagement Area, after it linked to a post of mine. It is a Blog which (to use its own description) “has been established with the goal of aggregating key compliance and electronic discovery news for further review, study, and consideration by legal and corporate professionals”.

Its aim, in other words, is to collate any electronic sources its author can find which may be of value to anyone working in compliance and electronic discovery – electronic disclosure in the UK. I stress the “of value” bit – a mass of stuff has been added just in the two days since I came across it and nearly all of it is interesting, useful or both. If there is that amount of good stuff out there to read, how much more is there which is dross? And that is just the summaries – each post links to a source article. You could spend a day – and a useful day in my terms – following up a day’s postings. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Legal Technology, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

OutIndex hires Senior Application Architect

Posted on August 21, 2007 by Chris Dale

I wrote approvingly recently (OutIndex imports orators as well as Outlook) about OutIndex, whose applications allow users to bring in house the process of collecting, indexing and reviewing electronic files, whether mail messages from Outlook or Lotus Notes, or Word and other documents in the file system.

OutIndex have announced the appointment of Mark R Winston as Senior Applications Architect. Mark Winston’s background includes high-profile, international forensic data analysis performing data analytics used as evidence for a variety of civil and criminal litigation matters. Continue reading →

Posted in eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

TRILANTIC cited as a top eDiscovery provider

Posted on August 20, 2007 by Chris Dale

A coup for Nigel Murray and TRILANTIC as ILTA opens in Orlando. Trilantic was named as a Top 20 eDiscovery provider based on Law Firm recognition. In addition, they were cited as a Top 10 provider in the (trial) presentation category.

The ranking comes in the influential 2007 Socha-Gelbmann 5th Annual Electronic Discovery Survey from Socha Consulting and Gelbmann & Associates. Trilantic is the only non-US provider to get a ranking, reflecting both the increase in cases which have a European or UK dimension as well as Trilantic’s increasing involvement on both sides of the Atlantic. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, ILTA, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support, Trilantic | Leave a comment

In Orlando, now that ILTA’s there

Posted on August 19, 2007 by Chris Dale

I pack my bag, and in it I put a Marriott hotel in Orlando, ILTA, the Practice Direction to Part 31 CPR, a document retention policy, a litigation support training course, an e-Disclosure conference, some needles and haystacks, All Souls College Oxford, and a wet labrador. There’s a varied lot of things to do while everyone else is away.

I am gazing down from my room onto the Lazy River swimming pool of the JW Marriott Hotel in Orlando. The sun is shining, but it is early morning, and the tall building’s shadow falls across the pool. There is no-one in it yet, no-one around at all. Across the pool there is a fountain in a lake, and beyond that the golf course. Soon I will go across to the Ritz-Carlton where breakfast will be served in the lobby-level ballroom, before attending the first ILTA session of the day.

Grande Lakes, Orlando Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, Courts, CPR, Discovery, Document Retention, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, ILTA, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support, SEO, Web Sites and Blogs | Leave a comment

Jason Velasco joins Merrill

Posted on August 17, 2007 by Chris Dale

Jason Velasco was one of the speakers at the OutIndex Summit which I wrote about a few days ago, managing to cover EU Privacy and the pros and cons of in-house data processing in one short and stimulating talk.

Jason has now become Vice-President of Client Services at Merrill Corporation, responsible for managing Merrill’s consulting organisation, project managers, and data collection/forensics group.

He was previously VP at Renew Data and before that a data recovery specialist at what is now Kroll OnTrack.

Home

Posted in Data Protection, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Daylight Forensic gets Safe Harbor Certification

Posted on August 15, 2007 by Chris Dale

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s post about FTI Consulting, comes news that Daylight Forensic and Advisory has also obtained Safe Harbor Certification from the US Department of Commerce. Either there has been a spate of new certifications or coincidence brings two at once whom I know.

Daylight, a leading international regulatory consulting and forensic accounting company, opened an office and an electronic discovery lab in London in May 2007. The lab and its data handling and processing procedures were designed to comply fully with the European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection and to ensure the highest level of physical and IT security. Continue reading →

Posted in Data Protection, EU Safe Harbor, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

FTI Consulting meets EU Safe Harbor Standard

Posted on August 14, 2007 by Chris Dale

FTI Consulting is a global company advising businesses on investigations, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues and the like. They are perhaps best known in the UK litigation market as suppliers of Ringtail Legal, the well-established litigation document management platform.

They do much more than that, however, including volume document processing. FTI have today announced that they have met the adequacy standard for compliance with the Safe Harbor framework which governs the handling of European Union personal data. Continue reading →

Posted in Data Protection, EU Safe Harbor, FTI Technology | Leave a comment

E-Disclosure, Needles and Haystacks 2 – volumes

Posted on July 4, 2007 by Chris Dale

This is one of a series of articles based on an account by barristers Alex Charlton and Matthew Lavy of a document-heavy case in which they were involved as the recipient of a large electronic Disclosure. Each article is free-standing but collectively they cover the original article’s sub-title “Where it went wrong (and how we can fix it)”.

The opening article is here

The claimant’s standard Disclosure consisted of 30,000 hard-copy documents and 226,000 further documents in an electronic database, amounting in all to 1.6 million pages. It was said by the claimant that the sources from which Disclosure came, including servers and back-up tapes, comprised 8 million documents. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, CPR, Document Retention, eDisclosure, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

E-Disclosure – Needles and Haystacks

Posted on July 3, 2007 by Chris Dale

The April / May 2007 edition of the SCL’s Computers & Law Magazine includes an article by barristers Alex Charlton and Matthew Lavy, who tell of their experiences on the receiving end of a very large, and apparently undiscriminating, e-Disclosure exercise. The article can be accessed here by SCL members.

I was told of it whilst I was, with other e-Disclosure professionals, at a conference on Information Retention and E-Disclosure Management in May (I will come back to the relevance of this at the end). My informants thought the article negative and unhelpful to those keen to encourage the use of electronic Disclosure. Furthermore, they said, it referred to an article by me in terms which implied excessive enthusiasm on my part. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, CPR, Document Retention, eDisclosure, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

The Ministry of Justice

Posted on June 26, 2007 by Chris Dale

Is it true that the judges boycotted the opening party for the new Ministry of Justice or did the MoJ just forget to tell them about it? And will anyone remember the civil courts in the excitement over prisons and civil liberties?

I ask about the party invitations because it appears that no-one remembered to tell Lord Falconer about the imminent dismemberment of his former department, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and the creation of a whole new one. He read about it in a Sunday newspaper in January where he found that the DCA – not a bad department by the standards of the times – was to be renamed and dumped with the least competent part of the Home Office functions, including those responsible for prisons. Continue reading →

Posted in Courts, Ministry of Justice | Leave a comment

Rule Committee Open Meeting

Posted on June 24, 2007 by Chris Dale

Let me confess at once that I missed the Civil Procedure Rule Committee Open Meeting on Friday, which limits somewhat my scope for writing about it. Mind you, I thought it was the Rule Committee Open Day and was quite looking forward to it all. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, CPR | Leave a comment

Anacomp buys CaseLogistix

Posted on June 23, 2007 by Chris Dale

Anacomp Inc, a large US provider of document and business process management solutions, has acquired CaseLogistix, the evidence and litigation management software company from Nashville, Tennessee. Continue reading →

Posted in CaseLogistix, E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, LegalTech, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Document Retention

Posted on June 18, 2007 by Chris Dale

I have posted a new series of articles on my web site at http://www.chrisdalelawyersupport.co.uk.

Called The Pyramid of Preparedness, the articles look at three tiers of action which a business ought to consider, either as a potential risk – a sudden requirement to give Disclosure in US or UK proceedings or to a regulator – or as considered polices to reduce the risk that you will not be able to comply properly or at all with a Disclosure obligation.

The three tiers are e-Disclosure, Litigation Readiness and a Document Retention Policy.

I describe it as a pyramid because the scope in terms of the number of documents diminishes as the urgency increases. At the top, a Disclosure request relates to the documents for a single case but must be dealt with at once. At the base, a document retention policy relates to every document you have got or will have.

The articles series begins here. The headings are:

1. Introduction
2. Disclosure for litigation or regulator
3. Litigation Readiness
4. A document retention policy
5. Where do you begin?

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you want to discuss anything covered by the articles.

Posted in Document Retention, eDisclosure, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

The e-Discovery of Document Retention

Posted on May 24, 2007 by Chris Dale

The IQPC Conference on Information Retention and E-Disclosure Management, London 22 and 23 May 2007

A load of self-imposed rules and habits were cast aside this week.

I usually sit at my desk until the early hours, and dawn is something which comes at the end of the day not the beginning.

I don’t go to conferences, mainly because I usually fall asleep if I am merely an observer rather than a participant – mildly embarrassing at concerts, deeply so at business events.

I don’t name products or suppliers, partly because of a hazy notion that I compromise my independence by doing so and partly for fear that rival suppliers will never speak to me again.

So it was a little out of character that, for two days running this week, I was on a train to London at 5:51am for Legal IQ’s conference on Information Retention and E-Disclosure Management. I stayed awake and interested through nearly 18 hours of a very deep and wide exploration of the issues implicit in the conference title, and I name the supplier with no qualms. Continue reading →

Posted in Document Retention, eDisclosure, IQPC, Litigation Readiness, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

E-Disclosure Costs Debate

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Chris Dale

The second article in my series on electronic Disclosure has been published on the web site of the Society for Computers & Law at http://www.scl.org under the title E-Disclosure in Practice.

The bulk of it describes the process by which a routine set of clients’ documents – paper, e-mails and electronic files – is reduced to a single electronic source. Its headings include:

Disclosure documents, disclosure data, metadata etc
What size cases justify e-Disclosure?
Which software should I buy?
Host it in-house or externally?
Getting the data in and maintaining it
Which support services provider is right for me?
Keeping the costs down Continue reading →

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LegalTech New York 2007

Posted on February 5, 2007 by Chris Dale

I am just back from New York where the members of the UK litigation support industry migrate en masse at the end of every January to mingle with each other and their American cousins. It was great fun, from the British Brunch early on Sunday morning to the cigar bar late on Wednesday night and all the weighty stuff in between.

It will take a while to filter down everything which was seen and discussed. How useful are the new US discovery rules? What will be the impact of the EU privacy rules? Which US suppliers and providers are coming to Europe and how many will succeed? What new products will do well in the UK market? All this needs applied thought which I will give when my bags are unpacked and my mental clock re-set. Continue reading →

Posted in eDisclosure, LegalTech, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

SCL Call to Suppliers

Posted on January 26, 2007 by Chris Dale

My article Uncovering the Mysteries of Disclosure is published on the web site of Computers & Law, the magazine of the Society for Computers & Law. It can be found here

The article was written in response to the suggestion that many SCL members are keen to know more about eDisclosure in litigation but do not know where to start finding out about it. Computers & Law hopes to create a directory of litigation support providers. Continue reading →

Posted in E-Discovery Suppliers, eDisclosure, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Off to LegalTech in New York

Posted on January 26, 2007 by Chris Dale

Normal service will be interrupted for a few days whilst I go to New York for LegalTech. The reference to “a few days” means that although I know I am leaving on Saturday, I am not very clear about the return journey. The BA strike has lost me my Wednesday flight and I am rebooked for Friday. As I write, the employers and unions are still locked in overt combat, but their words and postures have the whiff of compromise about them.

There are worse places to be stuck, if it comes to that. The end of every January sees the annual migration of almost the entire British litigation support community to Manhattan for what is justifiably billed as “the most important legal technology event of the year”.

The formal business includes seminars and keynote presentations, including a track called “Advanced Electronic Discovery”. More interesting perhaps is the opportunity to see all the main legal technology products, and especially litigation support applications, gathered in one place. Would-be buyers and those who, like me, help with the selection of litigation software, get the chance to see what is coming next.

More important still is the chance to spend time with all the UK players. Litigation support professionals are a congenial lot, and there are good social, as well as business, reasons for going.

It would be good to be able to say that I will post regular reports from the scene. I will not commit to that, but I will certainly write it all up when I get back.

Home Page

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Litigation Service Providers

Posted on January 26, 2007 by Chris Dale

“A big litigation services provider will handle every aspect of Disclosure for you and you can outsource the whole process, from first instructions, through Disclosure and exchange, to issue analysis and on to trial presentation, using their resources instead of yours.

Will you want to do this? Possibly, but my purpose here is simply to summarise what the litigation support companies do, not necessarily to urge you to place all your work with them ” Continue reading →

Posted in eDisclosure, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

SCL article now public

Posted on January 22, 2007 by Chris Dale

My article Uncovering the Mysteries of Disclosure, written for Computers & Law, the magazine of the Society for Computers & Law, has now been made accessible to all on the SCL web site. It can be found here.

The theme of the article is that providers of litigation software and services could make themselves more accessible to the market by packaging the provision of basic electronic Disclosure for routine cases, with more transparent pricing. Continue reading →

Posted in eDisclosure, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

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