Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) and similar state rules such as Colorado’s Rule of Civil Procedure 16(b)(3) and California Rule of Court 3.724 (8) direct attorneys to meet and confer at the outset of litigation to discuss e-discovery issues and craft a discovery plan. Below is a Rule 26(f) conference checklist of 10 things for counsel to consider when preparing for the conference and potential topics of discussion for the session.
Download this Rule 26(f) checklist as a PDF
4. Forensic Images of Electronic Devices. Often, the computers and electronic devices from which information is collected during discovery must remain in service during litigation. For instance, to perform their job, an employee must continue to use his or her work computer despite the fact that it contains information that may be relevant to a lawsuit. To preserve relevant information on the computer and to prevent data loss, parties should consider making forensic images of “dynamic devices.” A forensic image is a “snapshot” copy of a computer’s hard drive. Once the image is taken, the computer may be returned to service and the copied hard drive may be examined for relevant evidence without the worry of information deletion or destruction.
5. Determine Relevant Dates and Time Frames. At the initial e-discovery conference, parties should identify and agree to the relevant time period that will be searched for documents. This is a discussion that should be conducted both between opposing parties and also between attorney and client.
6. Search Techniques. One of the most important issues to discuss during a Rule 26(f) conference or its state counterpart, is how the search for ESI will be conducted. Will documents be identified by search terms, file types, or predictive coding? If search terms are used, parties should be prepared to discuss relevant search terms or agree on a process under which the search terms will be determined.
7. Format of Production. Parties should also discuss the format of ESI production. Will it be in TIFF format with text files or in native (original) format and are load files necessary? How will the parties handle color documents? Parties should also consider discussing how to handle e-mail messages and attachments and whether they should be numbered consecutively and produced together (sometimes referred to as parent-child relationships)? It is also important to discuss what categories of metadata (internal data about the ESI such as creation date, author, recipient, and the like) will be produced.
8. Phasing of Discovery. Another potential issue for discussion during initial discovery conferences is phasing discovery. That is, will discovery be conducted in phases with rolling productions so that documents from the most important witnesses are collected, reviewed, and produced first and documents from other less important witnesses deferred so that it may be determined whether discovery from them is necessary.
9. Discovery Orders. At the e-discovery meet and confer conference, parties should also consider discussing whether protective orders and clawback agreements are necessary. To those ends, many courts have form stipulated discovery orders that may be utilized by counsel.
10. Discovery Liaison. Finally, another potential topic of discussion at an e-discovery meets and confer session is the designation of e-discovery liaisons. For instance, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Discovery Pilot Program and the e-discovery guidelines from the United States District Court for Northern California suggest that parties designate an e-discovery liaison who is familiar with technical aspects of e-discovery and suited to serve as the e-discovery “point-person” to communicate with the court and opposing counsel regarding e-discovery issues.
Obviously, the list above is not exhaustive, and each case is unique, so other issues may arise during Rule 26(f) and e-discovery meet and confer conferences. However, regardless of unique issues, most, if not all of the topics discussed above will likely be covered in the conference.
Download this Rule 26(f) checklist as a PDF
15 Issues to Consider for E-Discovery and ESI Protocols