TrialDirector 6 Review

Rave Review: Ted Brooks, a San Francisco-based trial technology consultant and frequent contributor to Law Technology News, reviews TrialDirector 6, inData's upgrade to its litigation presentation software, on his Court and Trial Technology blog.

   "If you’ve never before used trial presentation software in your practice, now is the time to consider it. If you’ve used previous versions of TrialDirector or other trial presentation software, now is the time to consider springing for the upgrade," says Brooks. Among the improvements, he says, is "the return of the Grid View. The Document Manager tab now brings back the fully functional, editable, and sortable database view," that was offered in past versions.

CT Summation iBlaze Webinar 4/29

CT Summation (www.summation.com) has scheduled a webinar discussing the uses of its iBlaze software on April 29 (tomrrow)  featuring  iBlaze trainer and reseller Michelle Kovitch.

Release here.

Giving E-Discovery the Finger

One of the most important innovations in electronic discovery emerged two weeks ago, with nary a note from the blogosphere.  But, the leap for EDD is real.  That innovation is the iPad. 

Hey, I see all the eye rolling, but before you think I'm just another geek who's slavishly joined Jobs' conga line, understand that I'm not talking about the iPad per se.  Sure, it's a gorgeous piece of digital hand candy and, like the Kindle, it will influence technology's trajectory in a powerful and insidious way.  But, I think the influence on e-discovery will spring less from the device as from widespread acclimation to its ingenuous gestural interface on a page-sized scale.

Latin: To Bring With You Under Penalty of Punishment

I like being deposed, but then, I've always liked taking tests.  Weirdo!  Lawyers are notoriously bad witnesses, and I'm probably no exception, but I really like the mental exercise of defending my opinions.  After so many years eliciting testimony, it's much more interesting to play from the hot seat.  Yesterday's deposition offered some lessons in e-discovery worth sharing.

No lawyer worth his or her salt will notice a deposition without appending a subpoena duces tecum demanding the witness bring documents.  The SDT served on me focused on e-mail and telephone communications, so the challenge was how best to produce e-mail threads and call records to a party who'd merely specified that ESI be produced in a "reasonable manner." 

Unify Hosts 4/21 Webinar on ESI Archiving

On April 21, Unify (www.unify.com) will host a webinar discussing  archiving of ESI. It will focus on topics including the top five things organizations need to know about ESI in 2010 and beyond, as well as the newest regulations and recent legal cases. 

Release here.

Lack of Familiarity w/ Retention Systems & Policies = Delay, Sanctions

In re A & M Fla. Props. II, LLC, 2010 WL 1418861 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Apr. 7, 2010)

Where plaintiff’s counsel “failed in his obligation to locate and produce all relevant documents in a timely manner” by failing to gain a sufficient understanding of plaintiff’s computer systems resulting in significantly delayed production of relevant documents, the court declined to impose terminating sanctions or an adverse inference but ordered monetary sanctions against plaintiff and counsel in an amount to be determined.

More: here at ediscoverylaw.com.

Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Features EDD Upgrades

Microsoft's Exchange Team reports that its Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 will feature enhancements to assist users in archiving data and discovery.

Release here.

Mo' Shira

Hot Talk: New York District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin's Pension Committee ruling remains Topic A in e-discovery circles, with her assertion that screw-ups on litigation holds can often constitute "gross negligence" and subject parties to severe discovery sanctions.

Many folks are analyzing the case in the context of another recent decision by Texas judge Lee Rosenthal, Rimkus Consulting v. Cammarata. 

There has been a lively debate on these two cases here in our EDD Update blog, including this post from Ralph Losey,  and this post from John Jablonski. In our upcoming May issue of Law Technology News, we'll have two more articles on the topic, including Craig Ball's analysis in his Ball in Your Court column.

Here's a recent article from the New York Law Journal, by partners H. Christopher Boehning, Daniel Toal, and  associate Rebecca Kinburn, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Editor's note to newbies: You can use "categories" in the right nav bar to help you find case verdicts, settlements, and rulings more quickly -- or search for other specific topics within EDD Update. 

When Mercy Seasons Justice

For two years, Qualcomm counsel were the poster boys for chicanery in e-discovery.  The Qualcomm debacle gave rein to our worst fears about the other side.  It shrouded every discovery effort, and tarred every producing counsel.  E-discovery costs more because of Qualcomm. 

When a lawyer goes bad, the entire Bar suffers. So, we all breathe a bit easier when a colleague's perfidy is revealed as 'just' incompetence and not evility.  That's now the case in Qualcomm (see order posted by Monica Bay below), with congratulations going out to the lawyers who got the lawyers off.  With a caveat: When you claim your clients were "exonerated" by the judge declining to impose sanctions, you've let enthusiasm get the better of judgment.  The order states, "There still is no doubt in this Court’s mind that this massive discovery failure resulted from significant mistakes, oversights, and miscommunication on the part of both outside counsel and Qualcomm."  The profession will always be a little poorer for this episode, so perhaps the better part of valor is not to confuse dodging a bullet with being bulletproof.

Reveal Data Trail

Reveal (www.revealdata.com) has launched its Data Trail project management portal. It helps Reveal employees performing e-discovery tasks  provide their clients with status updates.

Release here.

Hot Neuron Clustify 2.2

Hot Neuron (www.hotneuron.com) has released the latest version of its Clustify document clustering software. Clustify 2.2 gathers related documents into clusters and labels each cluster with a few words explaining what they are about.

Release here.

4/2 Qualcomm Order Declining Sanctions Against Attys

Here's the 4/2 Order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major, declining atty sanctions and dissolving order to show cause.

Download QualcommOrder