Local Rule 7026-3: Discovery of Electronic Documents ("E-Discovery")

Rule 7026-3 Discovery of Electronic Documents ("E- Discovery").

(a) Introduction. This Local Rule applies to all matters covered by Fed. R. Civ. P. 26. It is expected that parties to a contested matter or adversary proceeding will cooperatively reach agreement on how to conduct e-discovery, including as provided under Local Rule 7026-1(a). However, the following default standards shall apply until further order of the Court or the parties otherwise reach agreement.

(b) Discovery Conference. In a contested matter, the parties must discuss the parameters of their anticipated e-discovery prior to or concurrent with the service of written discovery by the parties. In an adversary proceeding, the discussions will take place on or before the date of the Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f) conference, as well as at the Fed. R. Civ. P. 16 scheduling conference with the Court. The parties must discuss the following:

(i) The issues, claims and defenses asserted in the case that define the scope of discovery;

(ii) The likely sources of potentially relevant information (i.e. the "discoverable information"), including witnesses, custodians and other data sources (e.g., paper files, email, databases, servers, etc.);

(iii) Technical information, including the exchange of production formats;

(iv) The existence and handling of privileged information; and

(v) The categories of electronic information that should be preserved.

To the extent that the state of the pleadings does not permit a meaningful discussion of the above including by the time of the Rule 26(f) conference, the parties must either agree on a date by which this information will be mutually exchanged or submit the issue for resolution by the Court including at any Rule 16 scheduling conference.

(c) On-site Inspections of Electronic Media. On-site inspections of electronic media under Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(b) will not be permitted absent exceptional circumstances, where good cause and specific need have been demonstrated.

(d) Search Methodology. If the producing party elects to use search terms to locate potentially responsive electronic documents, it must disclose such terms to the requesting party.

(e) Format. Electronic documents must be produced to the requesting party as text searchable image files. When the image file is produced, the producing party must preserve the integrity of the electronic document's contents, i.e., the original formatting of the document, its metadata and, where applicable, its revision history. The parties must produce their information in the following format: single page TIFF images and associated multi-page text files containing extracted text or OCR with Concordance and Opticon load files containing all the requisite information including relevant metadata. The only files that should be produced in native format are files not easily converted to image format, such as Excel and Access files. The parties are only obligated to provide the following metadata for all electronic information produced, to the extent such metadata exists: Custodian, File Path, Email Subject, Conversation Index, From, To, CC, BCC, Date Sent, Time Sent, Date Received, Time Received, Filename, Author, Date Created, Date Modified, MD5 Hash, File Size, File Extension, Control Number Begin, Control Number End, Attachment Range, Attachment Begin, and Attachment End (or the equivalent thereof). After initial production in image file format is complete, a party must demonstrate particularized need for production of electronic documents in their native format.