E-DISCOVERY IN CANADA

Transcription

1 0 E-DISCOVERY IN CANADA Todd J. Burke Kelly Friedman Andrew J. McCreary James Morton Susan Nickle Vincenzo Rondinelli Glenn Smith James Swanson Susan Wortzman Foreword by The Honourable Colin L. Campbell LexisNexis'

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword About the Authors Table of Cases Introduction iii v xv xxiii Chapter 1: The U.S. Experience Susan Wortzman and Susan Nickle 1 I. Introduction 1 II. The Sedona Principles and Guidelines 2 HI. The Law of E-Discovery 3 A. Preservation and Production 3 B. Spoliation 6 C. Privilege 9 D. Costs 10 E. Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence 11 IV. The Impact of American Electronic Discovery on Canadian Law V. Conclusion 14 Chapter 2: A Survey of E-Discovery Case Law in Canada Todd J. Burke and Glenn Smith 15 I- Introduction 15 II. Defining and Locating Electronic Documents 15 A. Definition of Document 16 B. Potential Sources of Documents Scope of Production Deleted Information Hidden Data 22 HI. Spoliation and Preservation of Electronic Evidence 23 A. The Canadian Approach to Spoliation and Preservation 24 B. Spoliation and Preservation of Evidence in the United States 27 IV. Production of Electronic Evidence 30 A. Form of Production 30

3 x TABLE OF CONTENTS B. Accessing Electronic Litigation Support Data 31 V. Privilege and the Production of Electronic Documents 33 VI. The Cost of Electronic Discovery 38 A. Cost Allocation in Canadian Cases 38 B. Cost Allocation in the United States 40 C. Cost-Benefit Analysis A New Approach by Canadian Courts? 41 VII. Conclusion 42 Chapter 3: The Preservation and Destruction of Electronically Stored Information in Ontario Susan Wortzman and Susan Nickle 45 I. Introduction 45 II. What Does Preservation Mean in the Context of ESI? 46 III. Practical Steps to Identify and Preserve ESI 48 A. The Preservation Letter or Order 48 B. The Legal Hold 49 C. What to Preserve 50 D. The Role of Experts 50 IV. The Law of Spoliation in Canada 51 A. The Application of the Law of Spoliation to ESI 52 B. The Sanctions for Spoliation of Evidence 53 V. Preservation of Property 54 VI. Anton Piller Orders 55 VII. The Sedona Canada Principles and the Ontario E-Discovery Guidelines Preservation Guidelines 58 VIII. Where Are We Headed? 60 IX. Conclusion 60 Chapter 4: Privilege Susan Wortzman and Susan Nickle 61 I. Introduction 61 II. The Role of Privileged Communications in the Canadian Legal System 62 III. Privilege in the Context of E-Discovery IV. Inadvertent Disclosure and Waiver of Electronic Documents 63 A. The Obligation of the Producing Party to Protect Privilege 63 62

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi B. The Obligations of the Party Who Inadvertently Receives Privileged Information 65 V. Providing a Hard Drive to an E-Discovery Consultant: Waiver or Not? 68 VI. Solutions to the Challenges 69 VII. Utilizing Court-Appointed Experts 71 VIII. Conclusion 71 Chapter 5: The Costs of E-Discovery: Traditional Rules May Not Apply Susan Wortzman and Susan Nickle 73 I. Introduction 73 II. Why Costs Are an Issue with Electronic Information 74 III. Discovery Production 74 IV. Guidelines and Practice Directions 75 A. Guidelines for the Discovery of Electronic Documents in Ontario 75 B. B.C. Practice Direction 76 V. The Sedona Principles 77 VI. The Sedona Canada Principles 78 VII. American Jurisprudence 78 VIII. Canadian Jurisprudence 84 IX. Access to Justice Issues 87 X. Recommendations to Counsel/Litigants 89 XI. Conclusion 90 Chapter 6: Accessing Employee Electronic Information: Employer Rights and Risks Andrew J. McCreary 93 I. Introduction 93 II. Overview 94 III. Personal Information Privacy Statutes 95 A. Federal Legislation 95 B. Provincial Legislation 98 IV. The Criminal Code 100 V. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 100 VI. The Tort of Invasion of Privacy 101 VII. Common Law Privacy Rights: Non-Union Employees 102 VIII. Arbitral Case Law: Video Surveillance 105

5 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS IX. Arbitral Case Law: Monitoring Electronic Communications 107 X. Elements of an Effective Computer-Use Policy 111 A. Introducing a New Computer-Use Policy Ill B. Best Practices for a Computer-Use Policy 111 XI. Conclusion 112 Chapter 7: Electronic Discovery in Family Law James Morton 113 I. Family Law Rules 113 II. Production in Family Law Generally 113 III. Electronic Documents and Family Law Production 116 IV. Production from Non-Parties 118 Chapter 8: Electronic Disclosure in Criminal Law: The Evolution of a Revolution Vincenzo Rondinelli 121 I. Introduction 121 II. Legal Principles Regarding Disclosure 122 III. Meaningful Access to Disclosure 123 IV. Access to Software and Training 126 V. Costs 128 VI. Further Practical Issues 128 VII. Future Direction 129 Chapter 9: Electronic Discovery and Solo/Small Firms James Morton 133 I. Introduction 133 II. Are Electronic Documents Necessary? 134 III. Describing "Documents" to the Client 134 IV. Production Obligations 135 V. Types of Information 138 VI. Practical Steps 138 VII. Summary 140 Chapter 10: IT A Lawyer's Primer James Swanson 141 I. Introduction 141 II. The Switch to Digital 141 III. Files and Folders 142 IV. Bits and Bytes 143

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii V. Hardware and Software 144 A. Hardware The Microprocessor Core of a Computing Device Storage Media Virtual Memory 149 B. Software 150 VI. Networks 153 VII. The Internet 155 VIII. The World Wide Web 156 IX. "Delete" May Not Mean Delete "Slack" and Related Concepts 157 X. Metadata 159 XI XII. Messaging and Chat Technologies 161 XIII. Printed Documents and Digital Versions 161 XIV. Computer Forensics 161 XV. Other Issues 163 XVI. Conclusion 164 Appendix 1: The Sedona Canada Principles at a Glance 165 Appendix 2: Guidelines for the Discovery of Electronic Documents in Ontario 167 Appendix 3: Sample Chain of Custody Log 1 87 Appendix 4: Sample Electronic Discovery Action Plan 189 Appendix 5: British Columbia Supreme Court Practice Direction re Electronic Evidence '" Appendix 6: British Columbia Generic Protocol Document 221 Appendix 7: Alberta Generic Protocol Document 231 Appendix 8: Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta Civil Practice Note No. 14 Guidelines for the Use of Technology in Any Civil Litigation Matter 243 Index