Media Mentions

May 25, 2007

Scott A. Carlson and Ronald L. Lipinski publish article in Illinois Law Journal
"eDiscovery: A New Approach to Discovery in Federal and State Courts"

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In the April 2007 issue of the Illinois Bar Journal, Seyfarth Shaw litigation department partners and co-chairs of the firm's eDiscovery practice, Scott and Ronald, published their article, "eDiscovery: A New Approach to Discovery in Federal and State Courts." In their article, Scott and Ronald note that although "the standard for discovery remains the same - the guiding principle is relevance," the form of the evidence is now electronically stored information. This one change means that "even the smallest case has the potential to be [a] million-document" case. Further, the authors note that the eDiscovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure "now specifically add a new category of discoverable information called 'electronically stored information' (ESI)." With ESI added to the mix, all of a sudden databases, servers, cell phones, portable GPS devices and many other data-storing devices could theoretically become discoverable in a particular case. In short, Scott and Ronald conclude, we need a new approach to discovery in order to effectively handle ESI.