The NZ E-Discovery Blog  Facilitating proportionate and efficient e-discovery

Blog Archives

Go hard, go early…

November 18th, 2020

Just as with New Zealand’s exceptional response to COVID-19 (to date…), ‘go hard, go early’ also applies to eDiscovery. We all want to reduce the cost of E-Discovery. As I often say, eDiscovery is not expensive – eDiscovery done badly is ! To do this we need to turn our mind to the practical discovery […]

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Using the discovery exchange format that works for you

February 26th, 2020

Since 2012, New Zealand High Court discovery rules require parties to address the discovery checklist prior to the first case management conference. Just as you will be considering the methods to limit discovery to what is reasonable and proportionate, the discovery checklist requires you to consider the eDiscovery exchange format – the format that works best […]

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Turn your mind to discovery early

May 22nd, 2019

Far too often parties turn their minds to the practical requirements of discovery far too late in the process. If we are to reduce the time and cost of the discovery process, then it is essential that how to tackle discovery is considered at an early stage. With today’s proliferation of information, coupled with Court […]

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Exploring Offshore Coding to List Documents

November 22nd, 2016

Since my last post, I have had many queries about LPO providers and offshore coding. I thought it might be helpful to explain how offshore coding works, together with why it should at least be an option to consider. Listing documents and managing paper may seem simple – it is not ! Leading eDiscovery Consultant […]

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Efficiently Managing Paper in eDiscovery

November 17th, 2016

As I highlighted in my last post, paper still exists in the discovery process, however it is important that we explore efficient ways of managing it. Regardless of whether paper is all you have or if you simply prefer to undertake discovery with paper, there are ways to do this more efficiently. If we don’t, […]

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Don’t wait until it is too late

October 13th, 2015

One of the most frequent requests I receive from lawyers is asking for assistance with their discovery. The conversation usually goes something like this – How can I help ? – We need assistance with our discovery. How much information do you have? – We have 5 boxes. Is the information available electronically? – I don’t know, I just asked […]

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Workshop provides a grounding on eDiscovery Basics

February 10th, 2015

We have designed an ‘eDiscovery 101 – Back to Basics’ workshop prior to the New Zealand Law and Technology Conference. The workshop has been tailored to provide the necessary grounding in the practical requirements of the eDiscovery process. The workshop will be an ideal starting point, or refresher session prior to exploring the wider issues […]

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Why are we still manually listing documents?

October 29th, 2014

Spending considerable time and effort constructing a manual list of documents adds unnecessary expense and burden to the discovery process. A recent article of mine in LawTalk highlighted how removing the requirement to manually list documents can reduce the considerable cost and burden of the discovery process. Most documents these days do not need to […]

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Investing time developing a discovery strategy

June 11th, 2014

Today’s rapidly increasing data volumes require a greater investment in time planning ahead developing a discovery strategy, ensuring you and your client has a smoother and less expensive discovery process. LawTalk has recently published an article of mine The importance of investing time in developing a discovery strategy (A link to the article can be found here). The […]

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Don’t Press Print !

June 6th, 2014

One of the common issues that we still come across is law firms with clients that still insist on printing out electronic information. Printing documents that already exist in an electronic format is adding considerable (and unnecessary) burden and expense to the discovery process. In this day in age where almost all documents originate in […]

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eDiscovery software talking to each other

April 23rd, 2014

Many firms stay with eDiscovery products or adopt the same software as the opposing party, solely because they believe other products ‘don’t talk to each other’. This couldn’t be further from the truth as all the leading electronic discovery products now talk to each other with data being able to be migrated from one system to […]

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Overview of the 2nd Annual New Zealand eDiscovery Conference

March 25th, 2014

On Wednesday 19th of March, E-Discovery Consulting and EY welcomed over 100 participants from the New Zealand legal fraternity to the 2nd Annual New Zealand eDiscovery Conference. The event attracted senior lawyers, barristers, in-house legal counsel, government departments and regulators – most organisations involved in litigation were represented in some capacity. The Conference has now […]

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Reducing the reliance on traditional paper based discovery methods

September 19th, 2013

In today’s digital world almost all information is generated electronically, but many still rely on traditional paper based discovery methods. This reliance on a paper based approach will only add significant burden and cost to the discovery process. Traditional practices are becoming unsustainable  Many traditional practices can lead to avoidable expense. Managing electronic documents in […]

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Reinforcing the requirements of the discovery checklist

August 29th, 2013

A discovery checklist was introduced as part of the new discovery rules that came into force in New Zealand in February 2012. Parties must now address a discovery checklist on all matters and then discuss the issues raised with the other parties to agree the scope and practical arrangements for conducting discovery. The checklist provides […]

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The importance of discussing the electronic exchange format

July 4th, 2013

The importance of discussing the electronic exchange format with the other parties at an early stage cannot be underestimated. The Discovery Checklist (which was introduced as part of the new discovery rules in New Zealand in February 2012), expects parties to discuss the format for the listing and exchange of documents, on all matters. There […]

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Adopting logical document numbering

May 8th, 2013

Something that has puzzled me for many years with discovery exercises is parties that make their document numbering so unnecessarily long. This was highlighted to me again recently when I was involved in a small matter where the parties used 9 and 10 characters respectively for their document numbering. To illustrate how superfluous this was, […]

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Launch of new E-Discovery CPD Seminars

August 9th, 2012

E-Discovery Consulting has launched a programme of CPD seminars on electronic discovery and legal technology. The aim of the CLE seminars is to provide all those involved in litigation the opportunity to be better prepared and informed to tackle electronic discovery. Further information about the CPD seminars can be found on here. E-Discovery requires new […]

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A day in the life of an E-Discovery Consultant

July 11th, 2012

As published in LawTalk, issue 799, 6 July 2012 Over recent years there has been an exponential growth in both the volume and sources of electronic information. Nearly all information now originates in electronic form. This has complicated the discovery process as it has created many new challenges for lawyers. Managing electronic information in the […]

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New resource for the new discovery rules

June 27th, 2012

‘Due to public demand’ I have created a dedicated page on our website consolidating all of the new New Zealand discovery rules. The page contains links to all the rules relating to discovery as well as direct reference to the practical requirements of the Discovery Checklist and the Listing and Exchange Protocol. The page can […]

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Embracing an Electronic Documents Questionnaire

April 12th, 2012

Recently I have pointed clients in the direction of the UK Electronic Documents Questionnaire to assist them undertake discovery under the new NZ court rules. Tools from other jurisdictions (like the Electronic Documents Questionnaire), can provide good practical guidance for parties to tackle discovery more proportionately and cost effectively under the new e-discovery rules. With […]

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LegalTech New York 2012 – a NZ perspective

February 24th, 2012

The 2012 edition of LegalTech in New York yet again proved to be an opportunity that could not be missed for anyone in the ediscovery industry. Since it has been a couple of weeks since LegalTech (and having time to catch up on my ‘day job’), I thought I would put together a short post […]

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Continuing to promote the new discovery rules

November 22nd, 2011

I continue my ‘mission’ to try and raise the awareness of the new discovery rules, with the commencement just around the corner on 1 February 2012. The Law Society helpfully published an article of mine in their Law Talk magazine last week entitled “Promoting the new discovery rules”. A link to the full article can […]

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New discovery rules commence 1 Feb 2012

October 6th, 2011

The new NZ discovery rules have been passed and will commence on 1 February 2012. The rules were passed this week and were today published on the New Zealand Legislation website. The new rules substantially change the way that discovery will have to be conducted. The reforms modernise discovery rules in an attempt to curb […]

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NZ E-Discovery reform – a global context: #5 – Exchange Protocols

September 13th, 2011

The NZ discovery reforms introduce a mandatory listing and exchange protocol (the protocol) to facilitate the production of information. A key feature of the new NZ rules is that there is flexibility to modify the protocol to suit the requirements of the matter. Continuing my series of looking into the NZ discovery reforms, I will […]

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Rules Committee approves new NZ discovery rules

August 30th, 2011

The New Zealand Rules Committee has approved the final draft of the new discovery rules. The Courts of New Zealand website now outlines the current status with the rules – At the meeting 22 August 2011, the Committee approved a draft set of rules on discovery, revised after a substantial period of consultation with the profession.  […]

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NZ E-Discovery reform – a global context: #1 – Early cooperation at the heart of discovery reforms

August 9th, 2011

Continuing my series of looking further into the NZ e-discovery reforms, today I look further at the requirement for parties to cooperate, and compare to reforms in other jurisdictions. All jurisdictions are faced with similar issues of increasing burden and cost associated with discovery, but all still have the same obligations to identify, preserve, review […]

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Final draft of the new NZ discovery rules released

July 14th, 2011

The final draft rules of the New Zealand discovery reform have been published by the Rules Committee. The profession are being asked to raise any specific drafting issues by 10 August 2011, with the anticipation that the new rules will come into force in early 2012. The rules can be found on the Courts of […]

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Addressing discovery proportionately

February 11th, 2011

The proposed discovery reforms are a necessity to modernize existing rules by directly addressing the complexities that the exponential growth of electronic documents has added to the discovery process. These changes should reduce the current burden associated with discovery as we look to take a more proportionate and cost-effective approach that is tailored to suit […]

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