The legal landscape, and litigation, have changed markedly in the last decade. Venerable concepts, like the duty to preserve relevant information, production and review of discoverable information, authentication, and introduction of evidence, have had to adapt to email, metadata, thumb drives, "smart phones," the internet, web pages and more. The explosion of information itself sometimes paradoxically has made clear, neutral guidance difficult to find. This book identifies the key issues related to ESI--pre-litigation management, preservation, collection, processing, review, production, and use in deposition and at trial--and provides clear, practical guidance to litigators. The book is divided into eight parts that follow the sequence from the pre-litigation stage through trial.

• PART ONE: The Legal Groundwork
• PART TWO: A Primer on "Buzzwords," Information Technology, and Corporate Management Policies
• PART THREE: The Duty to Preserve -- Trigger, Scope, Limits, Termination, and Sanctions for Breach
• PART FOUR: Production -- Initial Disclosures and Discovery
• PART FIVE: Unique Aspects of Privilege
• PART SIX: Discovery -- Conferences of the Parties, Search Methodology, Depositions, and Evidentiary Issues
• PART SEVEN: Costs, Cost Reduction, Cost-shifting, and ADR
• PART EIGHT: Ethics, Cooperation, and Reasonableness

This book is designed to help litigators learn new vocabulary and techniques, and master and apply important legal principles, for preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, producing, and using ESI in litigation. It will help attorneys act as "translators" between clients, information technology experts, and courts and apply principles of proportionality and information technology to the problems presented by voluminous, fragile, and persistent ESI.