As any litigator knows, discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”), while providing benefits like keyword searching and electronic organization, can also turn into a beast because of the volume of electronically stored documents in modern businesses. The sheer volume of ESI can substantially drive up the cost of document collection and production and insert significant delays in litigation. To address these negative effects, in November 2012 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District released a set of best practices Guidelines for the discovery of ESI, an ESI Checklist for use during Rule 26(f) meet and confers, and a Model Stipulated Order regarding the discovery of ESI.
