July 11, 2006 – Electronic Discovery Law

New Evidence Rule 502 Addressing Privilege Waiver To Be Published for Public Comment in August 2006

Jul 11 2006

At its June 22-23, 2006 meeting, the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure approved the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules, and approved publishing for public comment proposed new Evidence Rule 502. The proposed new rule “opts for the middle ground” in determining whether inadvertent disclosure is a waiver, in accord with the majority view. Under the new rule, inadvertent disclosure of privileged or protected information during discovery would constitute a waiver only if the party did not take reasonable precautions to prevent disclosure and did not make reasonable and prompt efforts to rectify the error. The proposed new rule will be published for public comment in August 2006.

A copy of proposed new Evidence Rule 502 and the accompanying Committee Note is available here as an attachment to the May 15, 2006 Report of the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules.

Court Denies Motion to Compel Forensic Examination of Opposing Party’s Hard Drives

Jul 11 2006

Deipenhorst v. City of Battle Creek, 2006 WL 1851243 (W.D. Mich. June 30, 2006)

In this sexual harassment action, a former police department employee asserted that her supervisor (Sgt. Penning) subjected her to unwelcome sexual advances and requests for sexual favors. This memorandum opinion grants Sgt. Penning’s motion to compel the production of original journals, notes, calendars, and other documents, so that defendant’s forensic document expert might subject these items to nondestructive testing. The court rejected as unreasonable the conditions proposed by plaintiff that her own expert, as well as perhaps plaintiff’s counsel, be present at all times during the forensic examination by defendant’s document expert. The court noted that, in general, each party should be free to engage in its own trial preparation unhampered by the intrusive supervision of the opposing party. “In cases such as this, where purely nondestructive testing is proposed, the court generally allows the examiner to perform his or her work without being scrutinized by the opposing expert.” Further, the court observed that defendant’s expert would be required to file a Rule 26(a)(2) report disclosing all his findings and would be subject to deposition and cross-examination. “This provides sufficient safeguard for any legitimate concern by plaintiff regarding the expert’s methodology.”

Archive - July 11, 2006