7th Circuit Launches Electronic Discovery Pilot Program

On October 1 of this year, the 7th Circuit officially launched Phase One of the Electronic Discovery Pilot Progam's Principles Relating to the Discovery of Electronically Stored Information ("Principles"). 

I always applaud the courts for taking measures to guide legal professionals and this seems like a great initiative to create some consistency across the spectrum of practitioners, vendors and the bench in the Seventh Circuit.

The topics addressed in the Principles are divided generally into Early Case Assessment and Education.  Those topics are then subdivided into guidance regarding:

• the Duty to Meet and Confer and to Identify Disputes for Early Resolution
• E-Discovery Liaisons
• Preservation Requests and Orders
• Scope of Preservation
• Identification of Electronically Stored Information
• Production Format

There is also a Proposed Standing Order Relating to the Discovery of Electronically Stored Information for review and consideration.  The Committee responsible for this effort is a talented and diverse group and the implementation and development of this Program should be closely followed by anyone wanting to be a better practitioner of electronic discovery.

You can check out the Statement of Purpose and Preparation of Principles here.