Electronic Discovery and Digital Practice E-Newsletter

December 2003

Welcome to another edition of the Electronic Discovery and Digital Practice e-mail newsletter that we hope you'll find of interest.   This online publication offers electronic discovery, technology columns, tips and ideas that you'll find both practical and easy to implement and make a meaningful contribution to your practice.  Anytime you would like to unsubscribe from this newsletter simply reply to this message with the word "unsubscribe" or “remove” in the subject line.

In this issue:

1. New Book Release – Electronic Discovery and Evidence

2. Blogs

1. What are Blogs?

2. Digital Practice of Law Blog

3. Electronic Discovery and Evidence Blog

3. Sanctions Imposed for Subpoenaing E-Mail

4. Crash Data Available in Computers in Cars

5. Valuable Web Sites to Visit

6. Fun Sites to Visit

7. New or Upgraded E-Discovery Products

8. Highlighted Gizmo  - Pen Drives Replacing Floppy Disks

1.  New Book Release – Electronic Discovery and Evidence

With the release of Electronic Discovery and Evidence published by Law Partner Publishing, attorneys, paralegals and other legal professionals now have an authoritative and comprehensive resource available to them. Authored by the well-known writer and speaker, Michael R. Arkfeld, Esq., this book provides legal and technical analysis on the discovery, production and admission of electronic evidence. 

"Mr. Arkfeld's treatise on Electronic Discovery and Evidence is an extraordinarily useful, practical and accessible guide to an emerging and critical area of discovery."  Browning E. Marean, Partner, Gray Cary

  Continue reading . . .  http://www.arkfeld.com/bookrelease.htm

2. Blogs

What are Blogs?

Blogs are difficult to define since they can be used and formatted in so many different ways. Generally, blogs are a simple method of web publication of posting one idea at a time with links to various other sites while retaining the personal voice of the writer. Their popularity is rapidly increasing because of the ease of publishing and the immediacy of posts.

Continue reading . . .  http://www.arkfeld.com/blogs.htm

Digital Practice of Law Blog (http://arkfeld.blogs.com/dpl)

Electronic Discovery and Evidence Blog (http://arkfeld.blogs.com/ede)

3.  Sanctions Imposed for Subpoenaing E-mail from Internet Service Provider.

Just because e-mails are available through an Internet Service Provider does not mean that you have the right to subpoena them.  In a must read decision the 9^th Circuit recently imposed sanctions on defendants for an overbroad subpoena compelling disclosure of “[a]ll copies of emails sent or received by anyone at ICA, with no limitation as to time or scope.”  Theofel vs. Farey-Jones, 341 F.3d 978, 981 (9^th Cir. 2003).  The plaintiffs argued that the improper disclosure of e-mails resulted in the violation of the Stored Communications Act, the Wiretap Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The Court of Appeals, Kozinski, Circuit Judge, held that: (1) disclosure by plaintiffs ISP of e-mail messages, pursuant to defendants invalid and overly broad subpoena, did not constitute an "authorized" disclosure under the Stored Communications Act; (2) e-mail messages which were delivered to recipient and stored by ISP were in "electronic storage," under Stored Communications Act; (3) no "interception" occurred in violation of Wiretap Act; (4) Computer Fraud and Abuse Act provided cause of action for unauthorized access to information stored on third party's computer; and (5) Noerr-Pennington immunity did not protect conduct of serving invalid subpoena.

4. Crash Data Available in Computers in Cars 

Amazing, but true - there is a "black box" in many makes of automobiles that records vital crash data useful in litigation.

In the article Crash Recorder Data in Motor Vehicle it notes, "The type of crash data available varies from vehicle to vehicle and with vintage. In general, crash data includes information about the severity of the collision and the behavior of the airbag and seatbelt system. Some airbag modules also record five seconds of preimpact speed, braking, throttle and engine RPM data."

Below are additional links to two technical papers (cost $12.00 each) that may also be of interest to you. 

The Accuracy of Pre-Crash Speed Captured By Event Data Recorders. http://www.sae.org/servlets/productDetail?PROD_TYP=PAPER&PROD_CD=2003-01-0889

The Accuracy and Sensitivity of Event Data Recorders in Low-Speed Collisions. http://www.sae.org/servlets/productDetail?PROD_TYP=PAPER&PROD_CD=2002-01-0679

5.  Valuable Web Sites to Visit

-

• Law Practice Today – Law Practice Management Section – ABA. http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/

• Techshow 2003 – Top 60 web sites - http://techshow.blogspot.com/

6. Fun Sites to Visit

The Plain English Campaign Awards (http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/awards.html)

Each year the Welcome to Plain English Campaign site presents awards in their effort fighting for public information to be written in plain English.

Previous winners:

"2002: Actor Richard Gere who said: 'I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I'd think 'No, actually I am a giraffe.''

"2001: Artist Tracey Emin, who explained 'When it comes to words I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in terms of art - and it's my words that actually make my art quite unique."

Google Zeitgeist - Search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google.  See the list of the 50 most requested searches on the Internet. http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

7.  New or Upgraded E-Discovery Products 

Summation (www.summation.com). Summation Legal Technologies, Inc. has released Version 2.5 of the Summation Blaze LG product line (comprised of Summation Blaze® LG, LG Gold, and iBlaze®), featuring tools to handle electronic evidence.  Highlights of Version 2 features include Production Tools, eDocs and eMail facilities, and a new Pleadings Folder. 

Out-of- Sight software (www.softwise.net) - Every Word document that you send to another person contains “metadata” or “embedded data” that can be discovered or revealed by the party who receives your document.  Data such as authors, file paths, editing time, document comments, statistics, etc.  can be revealed.  Out-of-Sight software by Softwise provides the capability to delete the “metadata” before sending it off to others. 

8.  Highlighted Gizmo  - Pen Drives Replacing Floppy Disks

Try Today's Hip Technology: Portable Flash Drives

"I want to tell you about a new technology called a flash drive. Sometimes these are called USB hard drives or more specifically pen drives, key chain drives, key chain memory, pocket drives, thumb drives, USB mini-drives, USB Memory Keys, or simply removable flash disk drives. They are best described as portable hard drives that fit on a key chain or in your pocket, and you simply plug them into USB ports, where they're automatically recognized as another external drive and are ready to use in seconds."

Continue reading . . . http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/nov03/ferrer.shtml

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subscription, Notices & Privacy

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUBSCRIBE - To subscribe to our newsletter, please go to our Subscriptions Page http://www.arkfeld.com/subscribe.htm

UNSUBSCRIBE - To unsubscribe from the DPL newsletter simply reply to this message with the word "Unsubscribe"  or “remove” in the subject line.

FEEDBACK - To provide feedback about The Electronic Discovery and Evidence and Digital Practice of Law Newsletter mail to: newsletter@arkfeld.com

COPYRIGHT & REPRODUCTION - (C) 2003 by Michael R. Arkfeld, All rights reserved.  Subscribers and other readers may copy, forward or redistribute this document to colleagues or friends only in its entirety and provided copyright is acknowledged with the proviso that any reproduction, retransmission or redistribution of this material for unauthorized commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.

DISCLAIMER - This document is provided for informational purposes only. Information provided in this document is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and freedom from infringement.

MAILING LISTS & PRIVACY - The Arkfeld.com e-Newsletter mailing list is managed and used exclusively by The Digital Practice of Law company (DPL).  DPL does not sell or rent information or mailing lists about its customers to any third party.