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Slide 1: The Sedona Canada Principles Addressing Electronic Document Production Dominic Jaar William Platt December 5th, 2007
Slide 2: Sedona Canada      Sedona Working Group 7 (“Sedona Canada”) meets at Mont Tremblant in May 2006 Sedona Canada works by email and teleconference June 2006 through February 2007 to produce Public Comment Draft English language version of Public Comment Draft published in February 2007, French language version anticipated in May 2007 Public comments accepted through August 15, 2007 Second Sedona Canada meeting in September 2007 in the Rockies LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 2
Slide 3: Sedona Canada   Participants include lawyers, judges and experts from across Canada Members adopted the Sedona Dialogue model to create guidelines that are useful to Canadian lawyers practising in the Canadian legal environment in all jurisdictions LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 3
Slide 4: Introduction    What Is Electronic Discovery?  An approach to the identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, and production of electronically stored information (potentially relevant to existing or anticipated litigation) What Rules Govern Electronic Document Production in Canada? How Are Electronic Documents Different from Paper Documents?        Volume and Duplicability Persistence Inadvertent Ease of Destruction Metadata Dynamic, Changeable Content Accessibility: Environment-Dependence and Obsolescence Dispersion and Searchability LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 4
Slide 5: Introduction (cont.)   Why Do Courts and Litigants Need Standards Tailored to Electronic Discovery? How Can Courts and Litigants Use Precedent from the Context of Paper Discovery in the Context of Electronic Documents?    Sameness: Find Analogy from Paper Discovery Difference: Eschew Precedent from Paper Discovery Where Appropriate Translation: Applying Media-Neutral Rules in a Context-Specific Way  Diversity of Canadian Discovery Rules LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 5
Slide 6: Principle 1 Electronically stored information is discoverable.   Comment 1.a. Definition of Electronically Stored Information Comment 1.b. E-Commerce Legislation and Amendments to the Evidence Acts LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 6
Slide 7: Principle 2 In any proceeding, the parties should ensure that steps taken in the discovery process are proportionate, taking into account: the nature and scope of the litigation, including the importance and complexity of the issues, interest and amounts at stake; ii. the relevance of the available electronically stored information; iii. its importance to the court’s adjudication in a given case; and iv. the costs, burden and delay that may be imposed on the parties to deal with electronically stored information. i. Comment 2.a. The Proportionality Rule LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 7
Slide 8: Principle 3 Counsel and parties should meet and confer as soon as practicable and on an ongoing basis, regarding the identification, preservation, collection, review and production of electronically stored information.    Comment 3.a. Meet Early and Often Comment 3.b. Who Should Attend Comment 3.c. Preparation for the Meet and Confer LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 8
Slide 9: Principle 4 As soon as litigation is reasonably anticipated, parties must consider their obligation to take reasonable and good faith steps to preserve potentially relevant electronically stored information.     Comment 4.a. Scope of Preservation Obligation Comment 4.b. Preparation for Electronic Discovery Reduces Cost and Risk Comment 4.c. Response Regarding Litigation Preservation Comment 4.d. Notice to Affected Persons in Common Law Jurisdictions LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 9
Slide 10: Principle 4 (cont.)       Comment 4.e. Preservation in the Province of Quebec Comment 4.f. Preservation Heroics Not Necessarily Required Comment 4.g. Preservation Orders Comment 4.h. All Data Does Not Need to be “Frozen” Comment 4.i. Disaster Recovery Backup Media Comment 4.j. Potential Preservation of Shared Data LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 10
Slide 11: Principle 5 The parties should be prepared to disclose all relevant electronically stored information that is reasonably accessible in terms of cost and burden.    Comment 5.a. Scope of Search for Reasonably Accessible Electronically Stored Information Comment 5.b. Forensic Data Collection Comment 5.c. Outsourcing Vendors and Non-Party Custodians of Data LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 11
Slide 12: Principle 6 A party should not be required, absent agreement or a court order based on demonstrated need and relevance, to search for or collect deleted or residual electronically stored information.  Comment 6.a. The Scope of the Search LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 12
Slide 13: Principle 7 A party may satisfy its obligation to identify electronically stored information in good faith by using electronic tools and processes such as data sampling, searching and/or the use of selection criteria to collect potentially relevant electronically stored information.   Comment 7.a. Use of Targeted Selection to Focus Discovery Comment 7.b. Processing Techniques to Reduce Volume LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 13
Slide 14: Principle 8 Parties should agree as early as possible in the litigation process on the format in which electronically stored information will be produced. Parties should also agree on the format, content and organization of information to be exchanged in any required list of documents as part of the discovery process. LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 14
Slide 15: Principle 8    Comment 8.a. Production of Electronic Documents and Data Should be in Electronic Format Comment 8.b. Agreeing on a Format for Production Comment 8.c. Document Lists – Format and Organization LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 15
Slide 16: Principle 9 During the discovery process parties should agree to, or if necessary, seek judicial direction on, measures to protect privileges, privacy, trade secrets and other confidential information relating to the production of electronic documents and data. LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 16
Slide 17: Principle 9 (cont.)        Comment 9.a. Inadvertent disclosure Comment 9.b. Sanctions Comment 9.c. Use of Court Appointed Experts to Preserve Privilege Comment 9.d. Protection of Privilege Regarding a modified “Claw-back” Production Comment 9.e. Document Lists – Lawyer Work Product Comment 9.f. Protection of Confidentiality Comment 9.g. Privacy Issues LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 17
Slide 18: Principle 10 During the discovery process, parties should anticipate and respect the rules of the forum in which the litigation takes place, while appreciating the impact any decisions may have in related actions in other forums. LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 18
Slide 19: Principle 11 Sanctions should be considered by the court where a party will be materially prejudiced by another party’s failure to meet any obligation to preserve, collect, review or produce electronically stored information. The party in default may avoid sanctions if it demonstrates the failure was not intentional or reckless. LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 19
Slide 20: Principle 11 (cont.)      Comment 11.a. The Need for Sanctions Comment 11.b. Canadian Experience to Date with Sanctions Comment 11.c. American Experience with Sanctions Comment 11.d. Sanctions for Non-Disclosure Comment 11.e. Reasonable Records Management Policies LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 20
Slide 21: Principle 12 The reasonable costs of preserving, collecting and reviewing electronically stored information will be borne by the party producing it. In limited circumstances, it may be appropriate for the parties to arrive at a different allocation of costs on an interim basis, by either agreement or court order. LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 21
Slide 22: Questions and Comments?  For a free download of The Sedona Canada Principles for personal use: http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/e-discovery/   Encourage all to participate in the review and critique of the draft with the goal of making it useful and truly reflective of the Canadian legal experience. Public comments may be submitted using the online form LA GESTION STRATÉGIQUE et L’ADMINISTRATION PRATIQUE DE DOCUMENTS ÉLECTRONIQUES Page 22