Chapter 2: Rule Changes

CHAPTER 3: COOPERATION  During the same time period that the original changes to the FRCP were being implemented, some complimentary efforts were being undertaken by the Sedona Conference (hereinafter Sedona), a nonpartisan law and policy think tank. Sedona published the first edition of The Sedona Principles: Best Practices Recommendations & Principles for Addressing Electronic Document Production in 2004 and the document became influential in the eventual recommendations of the FRCP advisory committee. The second amended version of The Sedona Principles was released in July of 2007 and a third edition was released in 2018, then updated in 2019.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were heavily amended in 2006 to allow for electronically stored information to be discoverable. At the time, popular culture in the legal industry was mostly focused on the intense burden of electronic discovery from different and possibly unknown mediums. The Federal Rules back then reflected just that, providing a direct framework to limit the scope of discovery.

eDiscovery can make or break your case. It establishes the scope of litigation for both parties, the documents that must be produced, and the custodians to contact, among other important factors. In essence, the discovery process lays out the rules that lawyers must abide by during a lawsuit as they pertain to gathering, preserving, and sharing relevant documents. A single misstep at this stage could create a competitive disadvantage that will be all but impossible to overcome during the course of a lawsuit or trial.

Discovery is a critical phase of any trial or lawsuit, and can make the difference between a successful case and one that goes horribly awry. Both the requesting and producing party have a number of obligations to meet during the discovery process, whether this done through eDiscovery software or other discovery methods, which are extensively detailed in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 (FRCP).