New Rules for Electronic Discovery, free podcast for ABA members

New rules on electronic discovery went into effect in December of last year. What do the changes mean for you? A free ABA-CLE podcast, an ABA Connection Program, delves into the pros and cons of forms of production, safe harbor issues, and poses questions as to how to handle deleted or virus-infected files.

The ABA Connection series allows association members to earn CLE credit when it's convenient for them, via teleconference or online, at a low cost or — in the case of the program on electronic discovery — for free.

Accompanying the podcast was a February 2007 article from the ABA Journal that laid the groundwork for the discussion. The article is available when one registers for the podcast.

New electronic rules, as the experts on the conference mentioned, mean that lawyers must work together in a more collaborative and cooperative manner. Large corporations, at the very least, will need to ensure that they have policies in place relating to preservation of electronic information. And this means allocation of additional resources.

Other matters discussed were scope of timing of preservation. How quickly do you need to preserve documents? The difference between accessible versus inaccessible data are explained during the program, as are the implications of varying types of format production and retention: how can you avoid opposing counsel learning clues via metadata? Finally, "attendees" learn more about how to carry out policies in their workplace in order to provide an audit trail and meet the "good faith" requirement in efforts to maintain essential data in the workplace.

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