Fasten your seatbelts, legal mavens. In less than six months, electronic discovery as we know it will undergo very important changes.
Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) that take effect on Dec. 1 are supposed to help reduce litigation costs. The paradox is that electronic discovery costs may increase, especially with respect to work that must be performed within the first 120 days after a lawsuit has commenced.
The purpose of these new rules is to provide early structure, uniformity and predictability. But the reality is that right from the get-go, the parties in a lawsuit will need to start evaluating with their IT teams and outside counsel where they stand in terms of their own electronic data.
