9 Responses to Paper or Plastic? The Wisdom of Supermarket Bag Boys and the Need for Local Rules

  1. […] cannot be made without weighing and costing all the options. Ralph Losey’s article is called Paper or Plastic? The Wisdom of Supermarket Bag Boys and the Need for Local Rules which explores, amongst other things, the extent to which the obligation to discuss e-discovery at […]

  2. From someone whose company deals with the technical side of ediscovery, this peek at the legal side was enlightening, to say the least. Seems like the an understanding of the “e” in “ediscovery” would give one a serious advantage, or put another way, “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”

    Christa C. Ayer,
    http://www.messagingarchitects.com

  3. John Okonkwo says:

    It seems to me that the “paper or plastic” analogy may well work as a defacto global benchmark especially as there appears to be a parallel between the immersion of e-discovery/e-disclosure and the availabilty of bagging options.

    In those jurisdictions where you are not even offered the choice of a paper bag (UK and most of EU) the issue is at a primordial stage. A prominent litigator and serial speaker at litigation conferences recently told me that all you need to do in respect of e-disclosure in English cases is print the emails and send them off. He had no idea that there is a Practice Direction for the management of ESI in court proceedings in England and Wales.

    In jurisdictions where you have to pay for your gocery bag (e.g. Ireland) the issue is still foggy on the radar. In those countries where you have to bring your own grocery bag to be sure of the quality (common law emerging markets)Rules do not even exist.

    Having handled litigation and e-fraud cases in the US, UK and emerging markets, my experience is that most counsel/barristers handling complex cross-border cases see e-discovery/e-disclosure as a needless distraction. In high profile cases involving Shell, Pfizer, Halliburton and tobacco companies my recommendations on e-discovery are always at the bottom of the tray. However, this has started to change as regulators pursue fraudlent bankers, extortionists, and money-launderers across the globe. One attorney general, who last year described e-discovery as “star gazing” is now drafting guidelines for the same.

    So, in perspective, US attorneys, judges and commentators are millions of miles ahead of the rest of the world in trying to understand how best to handle amorphous ESI so as to enhance justice rather than stifle it.

  4. […] Losey discusses the absence of eDiscovery consideration in Federal Rules at his eDiscovery Team blog.  Long, but really informative read. Possibly related posts: […]

  5. Adam Bullock says:

    Really fantastic write-up, made for some enlightening reading this Friday morning. Thanks!

  6. […] or Plastic? The Movie This week’s blog is the video sequel to last week’s lengthy article. To make up for the shockingly large number of words that I threw out at you last week (5,389 to be […]

  7. […] topic and a review of five recent cases that help make these points, see my blog this week:  Paper or Plastic? The Wisdom of Supermarket Bag Boys and the Need for Local Rules. I conclude the commentary with a suggestion for a local rule requiring attorneys to make specific […]

  8. […] They fight over form of production because they do not grasp that metadata is not really that important, and it is a waste of client money and court time to hide it. They also fail to do simple things, like decide what form of production they want when they make a production request, not afterwards. I have written about this competence issue before in Paper or Plastic? The Wisdom of Supermarket Bag Boys and the Need for Local Rules. […]

  9. […] or declare an impasse on common, core e-discovery issues. Ralph Losey, myself, and others have drafted a basic local rule to jump start this e-discovery dialogue in any […]

Leave a Reply

Discover more from e-Discovery Team

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading