What do The Sedona Conference, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and Bob Dylan have in common?

Read my latest blog to find out. I'll give you a hint. Remember the song, Ballad of a Thin Man with this great line: 

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Mister Jones has another name, Bill E. Boie. At least that is what my past blog guest writer, Bill Hamilton, head of Holland & Knight's e-Discovery team, called him in his great satire, the Non-Cooperation Proclamation.

Turns out that Justice Breyer is no Mr. Jones or Bill E. Boie. He indeed gets it and has added his comments to a special publication of the Sedona Conference Journal.

Although, as most of you know I generally shy away from opinions, in my conclusion to this weeks blog I do venture a few, including the following:

It is really not that hard to cooperate. Attorneys do it all of the time in areas where they know what they are doing. Pre-trial stipulations come to mind, as do evidence stipulations, not to mention mediations and other forms of ADR. But it is hard to cooperate on electronic discovery when you are not comfortable with the field and do not know what you are doing. For instance, you may not know if a particular issue or concession is important or not. When you do not know, you tend to treat everything as critical. Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is. You are afraid of making a mistake that will cost your client. You are afraid of looking stupid. For those reasons, you object to everything your adversary wants. 

For the rest of my commentary, see: A Supreme Court Justice Writes the Preface to a Sedona Conference Journal on the Cooperation Proclamation.