New York courts begin to mandate eDiscovery

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (Freitag, 03 September 2010) | Category : eDiscovery

The judicial branch of the New York state government is acting to improve the presence of eDiscovery within its courtrooms, according to a report from Law.com.

Recent amendments to the Uniform Trial Court Rules are designed to prompt lawyers to get up-to-date with eDiscovery technology pertaining to their clients' records. Since the state began investigating eDiscovery in its court system, reports on the potential impact of a mandate for the technology have prompted lawmakers to enforce the use of it for certain New York legal districts, Law.com reports.

"Many frequent state-court litigants and lawyers have expressed concern about the lack of predictability and consistency in handling eDiscovery," a deputy counsel in New York's Unified Court System wrote in a report on eDiscovery released earlier this year. "Those same parties and lawyers appear to be turning away from New York State courts for the greater sense of certainty and ability to handle massive eDiscovery disputes that the federal courts, and, to a lesser extent, other state courts with more developed eDiscovery practices can provide."

The recent amendment is a sign of increased attention on New York's lack of legal discovery and email compliance technology. The state's government recently passed a separate bill to mandate the submission of the New York governor's email documents to a state-managed email archiving solution.