From Bow Tie Law’s Blog:

I always liked John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian views on justice to provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, within reason. I propose Utilitarian e-Discovery. All the vendors in the litigation support profession produce many fine products and solutions for large scale e-Discovery services. I have a challenge to everyone in the litigation support profession: Go to your local state courthouse. Spend one hour watching the case management conference calendar. Ask yourself, “Do our products help these attorneys and their clients?” 93% of litigation in the United States is in state courts, not the Federal (CEIC Judicial Panel, 2010). According to the ABA, there were a total of 1,143,358 lawyers in the United States in 2007. There is other data that shows 75-80% of lawyers practice in firms with 20 attorneys or less (estimated 857,519 lawyers with 2007 numbers). My concern for our industry is that products are being developed only for those in the top 7% of litigation in Federal Court.

Bow Tie Law’s Blog: Utilitarian e-Discovery: A Challenge for the Litigation Support Profession

Upcoming webinar on 5/19, info at Bow Tie Law’s Blog -

The Court finds the parties could have avoided the expenses of this Motion by conferring appropriately early in the case about ESI.

United States Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. LaSalle Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70514 (S.D. Ohio July 24, 2009).

Case law is riddled with attorneys failing to comply with their statutory requirement to meet with their opposing counsel to discuss electronic discovery.  This failure to meet, most likely from inexperience instead of gamesmanship, can drive up discovery costs.  It can also result in a judicial lashing in open court.

Please join Connie Merriett, Esq., Dechert, LLC and Peter Coons., D4 LLC for a discussion on meet & confer best practices on May 19, 2010 at 12:00 am PST/3:00 pm EST.

Bow Tie Law’s Blog:Meet Early, Meet Often: Best Practices for Compliance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) Meet & Confer Requirements

From Bow Tie Law’s Blog:

In the epic legal battle over patents and floppy disk controller defects dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, the Defendants brought a motion to compel the Plaintiff, who was an employee of his own company, who did not regularly testify as an expert on the company’s behalf, to prepare an expert report for the Defendants. The Defendants also wanted the Plaintiff to submit to an additional four days of deposition testimony.  Phillip M. Adams & Assocs., L.L.C. v. Fujitsu Ltd., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27022, at *10-11 (D. Utah Mar. 20, 2010).

The Plaintiff had already testified for seven days.

The Defendants argued that since the Plaintiff had testified in seven other lawsuits as an expert witness, he was required to submit an expert report.  Adams, at *12.  However, in only one of those cases was the Plaintiff’s employer a party in the lawsuit.

Bow Tie Law’s Blog: When is an Employee Expert an Expert Who Must Prepare a Report?

Bow Tie Law’s blog has a post up inviting us to a discussion with  Judge Facciola hosted by D4, but the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that BTLB is planning something nefarious, seeking to be the one and only Bow Tie in the e-Discovery Universe.  Worry not, dear reader, I’m considering hiring Orly Taitz to look into the matter further.

As mony of you know, I’m an unabashed fanboy of Bow Tie Law’s Blog.  Josh’s posts are always insightful, entertaining, and timely.  Tonight I’ll raise a glass to another year of bow ties.

From Bow Tie Law’s Blog:

December 30, 2009 marks the first anniversary of “Bow Tie Law.”

2009 was a watershed year of case law, with litigation hold opinions coming up weekly this summer; the mandatory exclusion of ESI for the failure to disclose or supplement discovery; and judges holding attorneys to a higher standard for electronically stored information.

Thank you everyone who has made Bow Tie Law “Year One” a success as we enter 2010.

Bow Tie Law’s Blog – Bow Tie Law 1st Anniversary