|
|
 |
News & Publications - News Article
| |
| Electronic Discovery Has Arrived, March 2009 |
Important new court rules published today will affect Irish litigation significantly. Computers and other electronic equipment often contain important evidence and the new rules make it easier to seek and inspect such evidence. However, the new rules seek to strike a careful balance between parties’ rights to access relevant evidence, and avoiding excessive burden and expense on parties giving discovery of electronic data. The new rules contain other provisions designed to make large discoveries less difficult to manage. The rules also impose an obligation on all persons giving discovery to swear on affidavit that they understand their obligation to give adequate discovery, including discovery of documents or data which may damage their case.
The main provisions are:
- a party may seek electronic data in searchable form from its opponent;
- the court may order a party to give inspection and search facilities for electronic data on its computer systems to the other side;
- where computers contain sensitive non-discoverable data, the court instead may order that an independent expert carry out the inspection and search for relevant electronic data (the party seeking that discovery will have to fund the expert’s costs and expenses);
- where a party giving discovery finds that searching for the documents or data is excessively costly or burdensome, it may apply to the court to seek to narrow the scope of the discovery order;
- a party giving discovery must list the documents or data according to agreed categories or in a sequence corresponding with the manner in which the documents or data has been stored or kept in the usual course of business – the intention is to make discovery more comprehensible;
- all parties giving discovery must swear in an affidavit of discovery that they understand their obligation to give discovery of documents and electronic data (within the categories of discovery agreed or ordered by the court) which may help or damage their case in any way.
The new rules apply to litigation in the Superior Courts, and come into effect on 16 April 2009.
Further information is available from:
Roddy Bourke (Litigation Partner)
ddi: +353 1 607 1315
roddy.bourke@mccannfitzgerald.ie
or any other litigation partner.
| | |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |  |
|
|
|
