Irish Law Reform Commission consultation paper on Documentary and Electronic Evidence

The Irish Law Reform Commission has just issued a consultation paper on Documentary and Electronic Evidence. At 313 pages, it is not going to be a quick read and I have done no more than skim it so far.

Its ambit is extremely wide, embracing civil and criminal proceedings, the definition of a document, the rules of evidence, public records, business books and documents, admissibility and authentication. It sweeps up on the way subjects like retention of documents and anticipated legal proceedings, money-laundering, e-signatures and cross-jurisdictional issues, and does so by reference to a variety of foreign laws, rules and practices as well as the existing domestic framework.

It looks learned and authoritative without being dull, and I will go through it in due course. You may like to see it now. I have a feeling that Ireland will be faster off the mark than Scotland (see Scottish Civil Costs Review – a missed opportunity) in embracing electronic disclosure in civil proceedings. If so, I would be keen to be involved.

Thanks to @richards1000 and IntegreonEDD whose Tweets tipped me off about this.

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UK interest in outsourcing on the rise

A Tweet earlier this week asks “Weekly LPO articles in the UK?” which, extended from its native (and necessarily abbreviated) Tweet-speak, means “Are we seeing at least one article a week about legal process outsourcing in the UK?”

The question was triggered by an article in Legal Week headed Pass it on which looks at the growth of interest in outsourcing. What is being passed on (thus giving the article its title) is some part of a legal process which cannot be done cost-effectively by the law firm with conduct of the matter or by the client directly. The article covers more than the litigation work which is the main focus of my interest. It also embraces more than sending the work beyond the seas, pointing out (as I have more than once) that the principles of outsourcing apply to any task which can be done more cost-effectively (which may also mean “more cheaply”) in other hands; those hands may be round the corner, at least when compared with Mumbai.

New website for Local Government Lawyers brings commercial awareness to public sector litigation

A new website for local government lawyers has appeared. Given the very wide range of legal issues which affect local authorities, it is perhaps surprising that we have not seen one before. Local authority insulation from the real world will not help them in the civil courts.

I came across the site Local Government Lawyer because it republished an article of mine about Earles v Barclays Bank Plc [2009] EWHC 2500 (Mercantile) (08 October 2009) with the title The cost of non-compliance. Everything said in that judgment about large organisations, such as the defendant bank in that case, applies equally to litigation brought by or against local authorities – they deal with many people, have a host of statutory powers and duties which generate a lot of documents, and a large internal client base which differs from a bank’s only in that the background and experience of the people involved insulates them from the rigours of the commercial world.