To address the problem of excessive costs of the discovery process, particularly in patent litigation, the Advisory Council of the Federal Circuit created recently a task force to draft a model rule for e-discovery governance.
The final product, “Model Order on E-Discovery in Patent Cases” was unveiled on September 27 by Chief Judge Randall R. Rader at the 2011 E.D. Texas Bench and Bar Conference. The goal of the Model Order, Chief Judge Rader said, is to “streamline e-discovery, particularly email production, and require litigants to focus on the proper purpose of discovery—the gathering of material information—rather than on unlimited fishing expeditions.”
The 14 provisions of the Model Order address cost shifting, metadata, and the treatment of privileged information. The majority of the provisions address e-mail discovery.
Download Chief Judge Randall R. Rader’s speech (pages 1-20) and Model Order (pages 21-28) here.
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