Lawyers all over the country are being inundated by warnings (almost exclusively from vendors) to "Be Prepared for the New Federal Electronic Discovery Rules," and there certainly is a learning curve for all of us. I'm working on a longer piece on this.
But I spend much of my time in the California State court system, and became curious about what law was developing here on that subject.
Come to find out, a Westlaw search on "electronic discovery" in the California cases brings up ONE case. It's Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. v. Superior Court (2004) 124 Cal.App. 4th 762. And the case says that the California statue on point means exactly what it says. Here's California's statute on electronic discovery, Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.280(b) (formerly 2031.(g)(b)):
"If necessary, the responding party at the reasonable expense
of the demanding party shall, through detection devices, translate any data compilations included in the demand into reasonably usable form."
That's the whole thing. Looks like we may need to get a little more up to date in California.
Comments