Also known as: electronically stored information · ESI · e-discovery data · digital evidence
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Data created, stored, or transmitted in digital form. Courts and parties treat it as subject to preservation, production, and authentication requirements in litigation.
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Emanuel Escobar's lawyer receives an email attachment containing client files from opposing counsel at Evergreen Bank. The lawyer recognizes that the files were sent by mistake during a discovery exchange. The lawyer must notify the sender immediately under the applicable professional conduct rule.
The prosecution offers printouts from a defendant's social media account to show communications in a criminal trial. The defendant objects that the material lacks proper authentication as electronically stored information. The court requires evidence sufficient to show the account belonged to the defendant and the messages originated from that account.
A lawyer who receives ESI relating to a client representation and knows or reasonably should know it was inadvertently sent must promptly notify the sender.
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Rule 16(b)(3)(B)(iii) permits a scheduling order to provide for disclosure, discovery, or preservation of electronically stored information.
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For electronically stored information, an original means any printout or other output readable by sight if it accurately reflects the information.
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…of Judge Battaglia In this case, we are tasked with determining the appropriate way to authenticate, for evidential purposes, electronically stored information printed from a social networking website, in particular, MySpace. Antoine Levar Griffin, Petitioner, seeks reversal of his convictions in the Circuit Court for Cecil County, contending…