Slack Channel – Electronic Discovery Law

Have Enterprise Collaboration Tools Made Every Day “Casual Friday” When It Comes to Electronic Communications?

Mar 10 2023

Employees ten years ago could not have anticipated how quickly and completely our workplaces have evolved over the past decade. In the aftermath of the global pandemic, significant numbers of employees have transitioned to telecommuting for some or all of their workweeks. The enterprise collaboration platforms adopted by many workplaces to facilitate this transition include a variety of electronic communication tools through which employees may communicate in a less mindful style than they would use in e-mails or printed correspondence, which, in turn, has created additional risks related to communications created, sent, and stored through these tools.

Benebone LLC v. Pet Qwerks, Inc. (C.D. Cal. Feb. 18, 2021)

Feb 18 2021

Key Insight: Court granted defendants’ motion to compel plaintiff to produce Slack messages used as part of its internal business communications. Despite the potentially 30,000 Slack messages to review, the court found compelling the testimony from defendants’ forensic expert who stated there are a number of tools and software vendors that have streamlined review and production of Slack messages. Further, searches could be limited to certain Slack channels, users and custodians to very streamline the volume of messages for review. Thus, “requiring review and production of Slack messages by Benebone is generally comparable to requiring search and production of emails and is not unduly burdensome or disproportional to the needs of this case – if the requests and searches are appropriately limited and focused.”

Nature of Case: Intellectual property

Electronic Data Involved: Slack messages

Case Summary

Tag:Slack Channel