Bresky Law Is Ready to Handle Appeals of Issues under the New Electronic Discovery Rules
On July 5, 2012, the Florida Supreme Court made several changes to the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure that will take effect on September 1, 2012 regarding discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”). See In Re: Amendments to the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure—Electronic Discovery (Case No. SC11-1542).
For the first time, Rule 1.280 will expressly authorize discovery of ESI (but will also specify certain limitations that a court may place on discovery of ESI). The amendments could lead to some interesting appellate issues in future cases.
Rule 1.200 will allow the trial court to consider various issues related to electronic discovery during a pretrial conference; the need for advance rulings on the admissibility of some ESI; and the possibility of an agreement between the parties as to the extent to which ESI should be preserved and how it should be produced.
Rule 1.201 will require the parties in complex civil litigation to address the possibility of an agreement as to the extent to which electronic information should be preserved and how it should be produced.
Rules 1.340 and 1.350 will allow for the production of ESI as an answer to an interrogatory or in response to a specific request (either in the form in which it is ordinarily maintained or in another reasonably usable form).
Rule 1.380 will ordinarily preclude a court from imposing sanctions for a party’s failure to provide electronically stored information that was lost as a result of the routine, good-faith operation of an electronic information system.
Rule 1.410 will allow a subpoena requesting ESI. The person receiving the subpoena may object by showing that the information or the format requested is not reasonably accessible because of undue costs or burden, but the court can still order production for good cause if consistent with the limitations that will be provided in the new subsection (d) in Rule 1.280. The court may also specify conditions of the discovery, such as ordering that some or all of the expenses be paid by the party seeking the discovery of ESI.
Bresky Law stands ready to handle appeals involving electronic discovery issues, as well as other discovery issues and a wide range of appellate and litigation-support matters in state and federal cases.