Video Summary
Most businesses now maintain all or almost all of their records electronically. In civil lawsuits parties can obtain that data in a process called eDiscovery or electronic discovery. That process can apply even if the company is a non-party to the lawsuit.
Understanding how a business dispute commonly develops and unfolds and where in that process e-Discovery lives is useful to any business. With that knowledge the business can take steps now to save money later in e-Discovery.
In this video, Board Certified expert Florida business lawyer David Steinfeld identifies the steps your business can take now to save money and limit liability later if you receive a letter or demand to hold or preserve data in connection with a lawsuit.
Understanding how a business dispute commonly develops and unfolds and where in that process e-Discovery lives is useful to any business. With that knowledge the business can take steps now to save money later in e-Discovery.
In this video, Board Certified expert Florida business lawyer David Steinfeld identifies the steps your business can take now to save money and limit liability later if you receive a letter or demand to hold or preserve data in connection with a lawsuit.
Video Transcript
Hello I'm Dave Steinfeld the owner of the Law Office of David Steinfeld in Palm Beach Gardens and a Board Certified business litigation attorney here in Florida. The video you're about to watch is part one of a presentation I gave on electronic discovery and how businesses can prepare today for the challenges in this area they will face tomorrow.
This video describes my background in the area and where in a business dispute electronic discovery resides. This video is not intended to provide legal advice but merely to educate you on electronic discovery and the challenges of electronic information management that all businesses in Florida now face. For your specific and unique legal needs please contact me for a private consultation. My contact information is on my website at DavidSteinfeld.com. Thanks for watching.
This video describes my background in the area and where in a business dispute electronic discovery resides. This video is not intended to provide legal advice but merely to educate you on electronic discovery and the challenges of electronic information management that all businesses in Florida now face. For your specific and unique legal needs please contact me for a private consultation. My contact information is on my website at DavidSteinfeld.com. Thanks for watching.
Preparing for electronic discovery
Thank you all for coming today. The topic of today's presentation is electronic discovery and what businesses can do now to prepare for the coming age of electronic discovery which is upon us. As of September 1st 2012 in Florida state courts we now have authorized the discovery of electronic information such as emails and other data that business store and because most businesses store data electronically to some regard the planning that's going to be required of how they manage this data is now becoming critically important for them.
In this first video I'm going to tell you my background and where within the scheme of a business dispute e-Discovery resides and then I'm going to tell you specifically the next video what electronic discovery is and then what businesses can do to guard against future potential sanctions or electronic discovery costs.
I am a Florida Bar Board Certified business litigation attorney. I am one of just over two hundred out of almost a hundred thousand attorneys in the state now that has that expertise and certification. I am also AV Preeminent peer review rated which is the highest peer review rating by Martindale-Hubbell that any attorney can receive. I am a member of a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of American, which is invite-only litigation honor society. I was named 2012 Florida Legal Elite and I'm also a member of several organizations that are dedicated to electronic discovery and that's how I stay current on all the case law on information and technology in the electronic discover realm. My practice is business litigation and consulting with businesses on how to avoid litigation at how to avoid the problems that come out of disputes with some prior planning and advanced logistics and planning.
In this first video I'm going to tell you my background and where within the scheme of a business dispute e-Discovery resides and then I'm going to tell you specifically the next video what electronic discovery is and then what businesses can do to guard against future potential sanctions or electronic discovery costs.
I am a Florida Bar Board Certified business litigation attorney. I am one of just over two hundred out of almost a hundred thousand attorneys in the state now that has that expertise and certification. I am also AV Preeminent peer review rated which is the highest peer review rating by Martindale-Hubbell that any attorney can receive. I am a member of a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of American, which is invite-only litigation honor society. I was named 2012 Florida Legal Elite and I'm also a member of several organizations that are dedicated to electronic discovery and that's how I stay current on all the case law on information and technology in the electronic discover realm. My practice is business litigation and consulting with businesses on how to avoid litigation at how to avoid the problems that come out of disputes with some prior planning and advanced logistics and planning.
Breakdown of a business dispute
A business dispute can be broken down very simply into a few components. There's basically three large parts, simple parts to a business dispute there's a beginning, there’s a middle, and there's an end. In the beginning phase which is what we call the pleadings phase that's where the parties present their information in writing in a lawsuit to the court and to each other to tell the parties and the court and everyone involved in the process what is the basis of their claims, what is their complaint, what are the issues, what are the facts that they see. There can be some motion practice in that phase back and forth and I have an additional video on my website entitled “Phases of a Lawsuit” that goes in greater detail on this but I'm giving you a thumbnail sketch now of these phases.
The middle phase of a business dispute is what we call the discovery phase. Unlike a commercial I’m sorry unlike a criminal case where the prosecutor would gather information and then bring charges a civil case or commercial case operates in the opposite manner to great extent where a business or a business person may know that something has happened there’s been some sort of breach of contract or something but they don't know the exact or precise specifics or they have to get information from the other side or from a third-party so that is what the discovery phase is designed to do. It allows the parties through various mechanisms to go out and gather information. This phase of a dispute is often where most of the costs are incurred because this is where the bulk of the work is incurred and this is where you would see things like depositions that everyone is familiar with.
The third phase of a business dispute is what I would term the end phase. Somehow the dispute itself must come to a close. That could be from a settlement, through a mediation, that could be through an actual trial, it could be through other procedural mechanisms that are utilized under the Rules of Procedure, but at some point that process ends. Now unfortunately it doesn't always terminate and completely end, you actually have a afterward and that could be things like an appeal that could be enforcement of a judgment it could be enforcement of a settlement and just like the afterward you also have the before. You have things that happened before the lawsuit. That's where planning for electronic discovery and electronic information management can greatly benefit a business because it reduces the future costs in the discovery phase in the lawsuit and it reduces the possibility that businesses can be exposed to sanctions or penalties for not properly maintaining their electronic data. This is now becoming critically important not just because Florida has updated its civil rules of procedure to allow for the discovery of electronic data but because almost every business in operation in our state today is storing data electronically in some regard.
The middle phase of a business dispute is what we call the discovery phase. Unlike a commercial I’m sorry unlike a criminal case where the prosecutor would gather information and then bring charges a civil case or commercial case operates in the opposite manner to great extent where a business or a business person may know that something has happened there’s been some sort of breach of contract or something but they don't know the exact or precise specifics or they have to get information from the other side or from a third-party so that is what the discovery phase is designed to do. It allows the parties through various mechanisms to go out and gather information. This phase of a dispute is often where most of the costs are incurred because this is where the bulk of the work is incurred and this is where you would see things like depositions that everyone is familiar with.
The third phase of a business dispute is what I would term the end phase. Somehow the dispute itself must come to a close. That could be from a settlement, through a mediation, that could be through an actual trial, it could be through other procedural mechanisms that are utilized under the Rules of Procedure, but at some point that process ends. Now unfortunately it doesn't always terminate and completely end, you actually have a afterward and that could be things like an appeal that could be enforcement of a judgment it could be enforcement of a settlement and just like the afterward you also have the before. You have things that happened before the lawsuit. That's where planning for electronic discovery and electronic information management can greatly benefit a business because it reduces the future costs in the discovery phase in the lawsuit and it reduces the possibility that businesses can be exposed to sanctions or penalties for not properly maintaining their electronic data. This is now becoming critically important not just because Florida has updated its civil rules of procedure to allow for the discovery of electronic data but because almost every business in operation in our state today is storing data electronically in some regard.
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