Welcome to Lawshelf’s video-course on E-discovery. This course offers a cutting-edge look into the legal and technological factors that impact the electronic discovery process in civil litigation. This is an intermediate-level course and we recommend that you first watch our video-course on Discovery in Civil Litigation. However, we have prepared the course so that it should be accessi ble even to people with little understanding of the technologies involved.

The course starts with an introduction to the nature of e-discovery and the phenomenon of electronically stored information (which almost all information today is). We will look at how the rules of discovery are applied to ESI.

In the second module, we’ll focus on how ESI is stored and retrieved. We’ll present the basics of the technology involved and introduce the “proportionality” rule that governs discovery of ESI. We’ll also survey the types of ESI storage and the challenges unique to each one.

Module 3 focuses on retrieval of data and the limitations on that process. We’ll discuss legal and ethical limitations such as privilege. We’ll also discuss the manner in which retrieval processes are negotiated and planned between the parties and the processes by which information is searched and discovered.

Module 4 fleshes out the proportionality rule. This is a complex cost-benefit analysis that determines, on a case-by-case basis, how deeply databases must be searched for relevant information. The module also looks at authentication of ESI, summaries of vast quantities of information and admissibility at trial.

The final module focuses on the practical. We’ll look at the process of creating and executing e-discovery plans and how to respond to electronic discovery requests. Finally, we’ll survey the coming challenges and the future of this ever-changing field.

At the end of this course, we are confident that you will be much better prepared to participate in the E-discovery process and that you will have a firm understanding of the principal issues concerning e-discovery.

Best of luck and we welcome your feedback.