Catagory:Market Announcements

The Alaska Supreme Court is now seeking public comment on a proposal to amend the Alaska Rules of Court to align Alaska’s discovery rules with the December 2006 federal rules amendments addressing the discovery of electronically stored information.  The Civil Rules Committee is recommending amendments to Alaska’s Civil Rules 16, 26, 33, 34, 37, and 45.

Comments are due by Friday, February 29, 2008, and may be submitted by mail, fax, or email:

Beth C. Adams
Court Rules Analyst
Snowden Administrative Office Building
820 West Fourth Avenue
Anchorage, AK 99501-2005

Fax number:  (907) 264-8291

Email address:  badams@courts.state.ak.us

From a January 18, 2008 article by Pete Yost of the Associated Press:

A White House chart indicates no e-mail was archived on 473 days for various units of the Executive Office of the President, a House committee chairman says.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., says a White House spokesman’s comments suggesting no e-mail had disappeared conflicted with what congressional staffers were told in September.

On Thursday night, Waxman said he was scheduling a hearing for Feb. 15 and challenged the White House to explain spokesman Tony Fratto’s remark that "we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."

Fratto based his comment on the contents of a White House declaration filed in federal court casting doubt on the accuracy of a chart created by a former White House employee that points to a large volume of e-mail gone from White House servers.

Click here to read the full article.

The Supreme Court of Ohio is now accepting public comments on proposed amendments to the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure addressing electronic discovery.  The amendments to Rules 16, 26, 33, 34, 36, 37, and 45 are based on the December 2006 amendments made to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  

Click to view the proposed amendments as published for public comment.

Comments on the proposed amendments must be submitted in writing to:  Jo Ellen Cline, Legislative Counsel, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 South Front Street, 7th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215-3431 or ClineJ@sconet.state.oh.us and received no later than March 4, 2008.

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Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington v. Executive Office of the President, No. 1:07-cv-01707-HHK (D.D.C. Jan. 15, 2008)

On January 15, 2008, a declaration authored by the White House’s Chief Information Officer was filed in response to the Court’s January 8 Order, discussed in our January 10, 2008 post on the subject.  The declaration responds to four questions posed by Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola regarding the backup media being preserved by the White House for purposes of the litigation.  Among other things, the CIO confirms that emails sent or received during the 2003-2005 time frame should be contained on existing backup tapes.  However, the CIO states that her office “does not know if any emails were not properly preserved in the archiving process.”

The CIO further states that her office is undertaking an “independent effort” to determine whether there may be “anomalies” in Exchange email accounts for any particular days resulting from the potential failure to properly archive emails for the 2003-2005 time period.  The CIO states that this “independent assessment” is expected to be completed in the near term.

Click to view a Washington Post article on this most recent filing and for additional background.

To modernize civil discovery law and improve the procedures for handling the discovery of electronically stored information, the Judicial Council of California has proposed amending California’s Civil Discovery Act and two rules in the California Rules of Court on the management of civil cases.

The proposal has two parts.  First, it would amend the Civil Discovery Act (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 2016.010 et seq.) to include new provisions relating to electronic discovery and would add two new sections relating to electronic discovery to the act.  Second, the proposal would amend two case management rules in the California Rules of Court (rules 3.724 and 3.728) to encourage parties to identify and discuss issues relating to electronic discovery early in the course of litigation and to encourage courts to address these issues in case management orders.  These rule amendments are closely connected with, and are intended to assist in implementing, the proposed legislation.  The rule proposals would not go forward without the legislation.

Click to view the full proposal and invitation to comment:  Electronic Discovery: Legislation and Rules

The deadline for comments is Friday, January 25, 2008.  Comments may be submitted through the Judicial Council’s online comment form, or by regular mail to the following address:

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On January 10, 2008, the Arkansas Supreme Court accepted the Committee on Civil Practice’s proposals for changes in the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure and Rules of Evidence to address the inadvertent disclosure of information protected by the attorney-client privilege, or any other evidentiary privilege, or the work product doctrine.  The amendments go into effect immediately.

The Reporter’s Notes explain the rationale behind the amendments:

Lawyers do their best to avoid mistakes, but they sometimes happen.  Discovery has always posed the risk of the inadvertent production of privileged or protected material.  The advent of electronic discovery has only increased the risk of inadvertent disclosures.  This amendment addresses this risk by creating a procedure to evaluate and address inadvertent disclosures, including disputed ones.

Click to view the Arkansas Supreme Court Order approving the amendments, which sets out the full text of the amendments and the accompanying Reporter’s Notes.

Coleman (Parent) Holdings, Inc. v. Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc., No. SC07-1251 (Fla. Dec. 12, 2007)

In a brief order issued on December 12, 2007, the Florida Supreme Court denied Coleman (Parent) Holdings, Inc.’s petition for review of the Florida state appellate court decision which reversed the $1.58 billion against Morgan Stanley.  (View our March 21, 2007 post regarding that reversal, and read the appellate court opinion, here.)  The Florida Supreme Court advised that no motion for rehearing would be entertained.  A copy of the order is available here.

From The Red Tape Chronicles, Posted:  Friday, November 30 at 05:15 am CT by Bob Sullivan:

"It’s being called the worst data leak of the information age.  Earlier this month, U.K. officials had to admit they’d lost hard drives containing personal information on almost half the country’s population, including nearly all families with children.  If that’s not bad enough, the databases included the worst kind of information to lose — consumer bank account numbers.

It’s a data scandal fit for tabloids.  The price tag put on the loss is already $500 million.  Prime Minister Gordon Brown had to issue a public apology, and the head of Britain’s Revenue and Customs office was forced to resign.  The U.S. audience might have missed the initial news because the story broke during the Thanksgiving holiday.  But the obvious question floating across the Pond is this:  Could something that dramatic happen in the United States?

Yes, most experts say.  And the consequences here would be even worse."

Click here to read the full article. 

From the Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2007, Page A6, by John R. Wilke:

"The head of the federal agency investigating Karl Rove’s White House political operation is facing allegations that he improperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a private computer-help company, Geeks on Call.

Scott Bloch runs the Office of Special Counsel, an agency charged with protecting government whistleblowers and enforcing a ban on federal employees engaging in partisan political activity.  Mr. Bloch’s agency is looking into whether Mr. Rove and other White House officials used government agencies to help re-elect Republicans in 2006.

At the same time, Mr. Bloch has himself been under investigation since 2005.  At the direction of the White House, the federal Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general is looking into claims that Mr. Bloch improperly retaliated against employees and dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination.

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year.  They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said."

Click here to read the full article.  (Subscription may be required.)