I am excited to tell you about the ABA’s publication of my second book: Introduction to E-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques. Here is a link to the ABA webstore where the book can be purchased online. It should be shipped in the next few weeks and in the meantime you can order it at a 15% discount. I have not seen the final bound version myself, but it looks like it will come in at just over 300 pages. Check out the cool cover I got this time. Believe it or not, it took me a few minutes to see the “e.”
If you have read all of my blogs since the Fall of 2007, then you have already read most of this book. But if you missed some, or just want to see what it looks like in a “dead tree” version, then order a copy. The blogs have been rearranged into proper subject matter order with a Table of Contents, Index, Table of Authorities, etc. The book includes not only my blogs, but that of two blog contributors in 2008, Jason Baron and Michael Simon. It also includes many of the comments that blog readers have posted publicly.
Although I am a fairly plugged-in person, own a Kindle and all that, I still like paper books too. Ken Withers would call me “protodigital.” A book like this does in fact makes for a handy three-dimensional reference. Also, perhaps you have some friends that are not yet “blog-reading” types, but might read or at least consult a more traditional book? How about your law firm or company library, etc? You get the picture. If you can help me get the word out about the book, or buy it yourself, I would greatly appreciate it.
The truth is, the people who need to read this material the most are not among my regular e-Discovery Team blog readers. In fact, they barely read anything online. They have probably heard of blogs, but just dismiss them “humorously” as part of the “blogosphere” where they suspect only wild-eyed crazies would spend any time. Yes, we bloggers are still the “Rodney Dangerfields” of the established Bar. But these same lawyers do respect books, especially books by the American Bar Association. That is why I put tons of hours each week into researching and writing a blog, and even more hours each Fall to turn them into a book. My hope is that this digital-to-paper effort will bring the latest news and ideas about e-discovery to a wide audience, not just the elite leadership of e-discovery, by which, of course, I am referring to you!
Apparently the ABA was hit up by many subject-matter-experts this year who wanted the ABA to publish a book they either proposed or had already written on e-discovery. Their selection of my book, for a second year in a row, was by no means a foregone conclusion. The ABA quite rightly insisted it be peer reviewed first. It passed. Also, the fact that my first book was a best seller for the ABA, received great reviews, and was cited (thank you all), did not hurt either.
Introduction to E-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques, much like my first book, e-Discovery: Current Trends and Cases, is designed to make e-discovery approachable and interesting. It is, I have been told, a pretty good orientation for students of all ages and backgrounds. It is my hope that this second book, like the first, will be used by laws schools and paralegal training schools around the country as a basic text, along with others, on this exciting and important new subject.
Here is what the good folks at the ABA, who are, by the way, prone to exaggeration, have written to promote my new book:
About the Book
In the follow up to his acclaimed, best selling book, E-discovery: Current Trends and Cases, author Ralph Losey once again examines the ever-changing world of electronic discovery, and goes on to explain the latest trends and cases effecting e-discovery in an easy-to-understand manner. This new book is derived from a popular Internet blog on an e-discovery by a senior attorney at a large national law firm and includes readers comments on the materials in the book, and the authors replies straight from the author’s Blog.Introduction to e-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques begins with a fundamental premise that teams are the most efficient and effective way to do e-discovery. An e-Discovery team is an interdisciplinary group of lawyers and IT technicians, usually joined by one or more representatives of business management. The book explains in a step-by-step fashion how this team should be assembled, and how the various tasks of electronic discovery can be more easily accomplished using the team.
In addition the book examines:
” Self-organization and development of evidence preservation protocols
” New articles of interest on e-discovery teams
” The future of e-discovery suggested by a recent litigation survey
” How negligent e-records management is creating stunning business risks
” E-discovery at the Harvard Club in New York City
” New California proposals for e-discovery laws
” The conflict between our rules of discovery and the privacy laws of the rest of the world
” The limitations of checklists and how to work best using them, and much, much more!
Importantly, the book discusses two new e-discovery guides for judges and how everyone involved in e-discovery, not just judges, should become familiar with them.
No one can operate effectively in the court rooms of tomorrow without a good understanding of wheres, hows and whys of digital evidence. As a cover-to-cover read to learn more about the hot topics and latest case law in e-discovery, this book can help provide that understanding. After a read through, this book can be used as a reference, with its appendix of useful reference materials to look up cases and arguments to use in daily practice.
Introduction to e-Discovery is written in an easy-to-read style, making it perfect for anyone interested in e-discovery. This book is suitable for non-lawyers, too, including paralegals, law students, IT experts, and executives of all kinds in the growing fields of e-discovery and information management. Nothing is having a more profound effect on the field of law today than e-discovery. Make sure you stay on top of the latest trends with this important new book.
What Others Are Saying
“Ralph Losey’s newest book provides deep and useful insights into the rapidly changing world of electronic discovery. A must read for bench and bar alike.”–Browning E. Marean, DLA Piper, LLP
“This expert advice is worth its weight in gold, and goes far beyond mere technical expertise. …required reading for anyone who wants to learn this emerging area, avoid malpractice, steer clear of ethical problems, and importantly, win the case at the least expense.”
–George Paul, Author, and Partner, Lewis & Roca
“Once again Ralph Losey nails the current status of E-Discovery law. It’s an entertaining and legally substantive guide, which all lawyers would benefit from reading. I will use it as my first stop in finding relevant case law and highlighting problem areas and disparate opinions in this ever-growing field of law.”
“Ralph has done it again! His second “blook” is undoubtedly one of the most thorough, understandable, candid, and enjoyable resources addressing e-discovery I have ever picked up.”
–Sherry B. Harris, E-Discovery Advisor, Hunton & Williams LLP
My sincere thanks goes to the many people who helped make this second book possible, including especially my family, friends, law firm, kind reviewers, contributors, and you, my readers.
Ralph Losey is a Friend of AIs, Writer, Commentator, Journalist, Lawyer, Arbitrator, Special Master, and Practicing Attorney as a partner in LOSEY PLLC. Losey is a high tech law firm with three Loseys and a bunch of other skilled attorneys. We handle major "bet the company" type litigation, special tech projects, deals, IP of all kinds all over the world, plus other tricky litigation problems all over the U.S. For more details of Ralph's background, Click Here
All opinions expressed here are his own, and not those of his firm or clients. No legal advice is provided on this web and should not be construed as such.
Ralph has long been a leader of the world's tech lawyers. He has presented at hundreds of legal conferences and CLEs around the world. Ralph has written over two million words on e-discovery and tech-law subjects, including seven books.
Ralph has been involved with computers, software, legal hacking and the law since 1980. Ralph has the highest peer AV rating as a lawyer and was selected as a Best Lawyer in America in four categories: Commercial Litigation; E-Discovery and Information Management Law; Information Technology Law; and, Employment Law - Management.
Ralph is the proud father of two children, Eva Losey Grossman, and Adam Losey, a lawyer with incredible litigation and cyber expertise (married to another cyber expert lawyer, Catherine Losey), and best of all, husband since 1973 to Molly Friedman Losey, a mental health counselor in Winter Park.
1. Electronically stored information is generally subject to the same preservation and discovery requirements as other relevant information.
2. When balancing the cost, burden, and need for electronically stored information, courts and parties should apply the proportionality standard embodied in Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(C) and its state equivalents, which require consideration of importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.
3. As soon as practicable, parties should confer and seek to reach agreement regarding the preservation and production of electronically stored information.
4. Discovery requests for electronically stored information should be as specific as possible; responses and objections to discovery should disclose the scope and limits of the production.
5. The obligation to preserve electronically stored information requires reasonable and good faith efforts to retain information that is expected to be relevant to claims or defenses in reasonably anticipated or pending litigation. However, it is unreasonable to expect parties to take every conceivable step or disproportionate steps to preserve each instance of relevant electronically stored information.
6. Responding parties are best situated to evaluate the procedures, methodologies, and technologies appropriate for preserving and producing their own electronically stored information.
7. The requesting party has the burden on a motion to compel to show that the responding party’s steps to preserve and produce relevant electronically stored information were inadequate.
8. The primary source of electronically stored information to be preserved and produced should be those readily accessible in the ordinary course. Only when electronically stored information is not available through such primary sources should parties move down a continuum of less accessible sources until the information requested to be preserved or produced is no longer proportional.
9. Absent a showing of special need and relevance, a responding party should not be required to preserve, review, or produce deleted, shadowed, fragmented, or residual electronically stored information.
10. Parties should take reasonable steps to safeguard electronically stored information, the disclosure or dissemination of which is subject to privileges, work product protections, privacy obligations, or other legally enforceable restrictions.
11. A responding party may satisfy its good faith obligation to preserve and produce relevant electronically stored information by using technology and processes, such as data sampling, searching, or the use of selection criteria.
12. The production of electronically stored information should be made in the form or forms in which it is ordinarily maintained or in a that is reasonably usable given the nature of the electronically stored information and the proportional needs of the case.
13. The costs of preserving and producing relevant and proportionate electronically stored information ordinarily should be borne by the responding party.
14. The breach of a duty to preserve electronically stored information may be addressed by remedial measures, sanctions, or both: remedial measures are appropriate to cure prejudice; sanctions are appropriate only if a party acted with intent to deprive another party of the use of relevant electronically stored information.
I am excited to tell you about the ABA’s publication of my second book: Introduction to E-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques. Here is a link to the ABA webstore where the book can be purchased online. It should be shipped in the next few weeks and in the meantime you can order it at a 15% discount. I have not seen the final bound version myself, but it looks like it will come in at just over 300 pages. Check out the cool cover I got this time. Believe it or not, it took me a few minutes to see the “e.”
Introduction to E-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques, much like my first book, e-Discovery: Current Trends and Cases, is designed to make e-discovery approachable and interesting. It is, I have been told, a pretty good orientation for students of all ages and backgrounds. It is my hope that this second book, like the first, will be used by laws schools and paralegal training schools around the country as a basic text, along with others, on this exciting and important new subject.
Congratulations!
I really look forward to reading your new book and can’t think of a better source for blogging material about e-discovery!
Will look for (or code) an “Auto-cite to Ralph’s Book” PHP code plug-in for WordPress…will send you the code in a few days!