Dominic Regan on the Jackson Report: the word of the moment is momentum

There is a great deal of interest being shown in electronic disclosure amongst UK lawyers at the moment. Some of the activity is reported in my post Containing the interest in the eDisclosure Practice Direction and ESI Questionnaire. That ended with the disappointing (see what moderate words I can use if I take a deep breath first and try) news that the Civil Procedure Rule Committee felt it necessary to refer some aspect of the draft Practice Direction and ESI Questionnaire to a sub-committee. We (that is, Master Whitaker’s Working Group who drafted these documents) have been assured that the substance of both documents will remain in the form endorsed by Lord Justice Jackson in his Final Report [Para 2.5 on page 366].

It seems to me that the move towards proper management of electronic disclosure is now inevitable, sub-committee or no sub-committee. I am fielding requests to go and talk to law firms. Page views on my blog, which averaged around 5,000 in the closing months of 2009 were at 7,000 in January and are heading for the same number in February. If the trigger is Jackson, the parts of which lie in our own hands are the education message and the backing for the Questionnaire which, remember, does not merely make you identify your own sources, but gives you an early look at those of your opponents. Clients like early looks at the scope of the task ahead.

Millnet offer £10,000 of e-Discovery services for free

Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes is, as you doubtless know, Latin for “there must be a catch somewhere”. It seems unlikely, of course, that the Greeks are going to be bearing gifts for anybody just now, but Millnet seem to be. They obviously reckoned that the fear of a catch might be your first reaction on learning that they are offering up to £10,000 of e-discovery services for free, because they draw attention to this possibility on the page headed Driving down the cost of e-discovery which promotes their offer

Defensible document review – Epiq Systems panel at LegalTech

As is increasingly the case, The Posse List is getting out its reports of events and developments so quickly and comprehensively that it is folly on my part to cover them as well. This suits me well, since I am far from short of topics of my own, and I can extend my range by drawing your attention to Posse List reports. This is particularly helpful where I was not present, as was the case at the opening panel organised by Epiq Systems on Day 2 of LegalTech 2010. I was in fact outside, doing the final preparations for the second panel, which I was moderating, and about which I will write separately.

The subject of the first panel, and the heading to The Posse List’s article, was Defensible document review. Epiq is primarily thought of as a software company because of the respected and widely-used review application DocuMatrix. In the US particularly, however, they are known also for a document review service. The panel was led by Laura Kibbe and the panelists included our own Vince Neicho, who knows a thing or two about document review from his position as Litigation Support Specialist at Allen & Overy, and David Kessler , a partner at Drinker Biddle. David proved a lively panelist on my panel as well.