Feb 07
The abundance of electronic information now available makes it more important than ever that litigators understand how to prepare their clients for e-discovery without letting prohibitive costs influence their clients’ litigation decisions. Judges and lawyers in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals understand this predicament and have taken preventive action by drafting e-discovery principles and implementing them, on a test basis, in hundreds of pending cases in the 7th Circuit.
HISTORY OF THE PILOT PROGRAM
Chaired and encouraged by Chief Judge James F. Holderman and Magistrate Judge Nan R. Nolan of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the 7th Circuit E-Discovery Pilot Program Committee was formed in 2009. Its mission was to develop pretrial litigation principles governing electronic discovery to reduce its cost and burden.
Written largely by practicing attorneys who have handled actual cases with e-discovery issues, the 7th Circuit’s e-discovery principles are intended both to be flexible and to create discovery obligations proportional to the value of the case. The principles seem largely consistent with the Sedona Conference approach and less inflexibly rigorous than obligations imposed by Pension Committee v. Banc of America Securities, the Zubulake v. UBS Warburg decisions and the like. Those decisions are mostly reactive and one of the main goals of the 7th Circuit’s pilot program is to be proactive in identifying potential e-discovery problems and creating solutions, rather than allowing courts to impose rigid frameworks through case law.
Perhaps most importantly, the program’s principles are in the process of a substantial test drive by the judges and lawyers in the 7th Circuit.
The first phase of the pilot program ran from October 2009 to March 2010. Thirteen Northern District of Illinois judges participated (five district judges and eight magistrate judges). The participating judges implemented the principles in 93 civil cases pending on their respective dockets.
HISTORY OF THE PILOT PROGRAM
Chaired and encouraged by Chief Judge James F. Holderman and Magistrate Judge Nan R. Nolan of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the 7th Circuit E-Discovery Pilot Program Committee was formed in 2009. Its mission was to develop pretrial litigation principles governing electronic discovery to reduce its cost and burden.
Written largely by practicing attorneys who have handled actual cases with e-discovery issues, the 7th Circuit’s e-discovery principles are intended both to be flexible and to create discovery obligations proportional to the value of the case. The principles seem largely consistent with the Sedona Conference approach and less inflexibly rigorous than obligations imposed by Pension Committee v. Banc of America Securities, the Zubulake v. UBS Warburg decisions and the like. Those decisions are mostly reactive and one of the main goals of the 7th Circuit’s pilot program is to be proactive in identifying potential e-discovery problems and creating solutions, rather than allowing courts to impose rigid frameworks through case law.
Perhaps most importantly, the program’s principles are in the process of a substantial test drive by the judges and lawyers in the 7th Circuit.
The first phase of the pilot program ran from October 2009 to March 2010. Thirteen Northern District of Illinois judges participated (five district judges and eight magistrate judges). The participating judges implemented the principles in 93 civil cases pending on their respective dockets.