Tip: Understand the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and limitations of e-discovery

The e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern civil proceedings in federal courts, adapt existing rules and concepts to electronically stored information.

 

This is the second installment in a series that explains the so-called e-discovery rules.

Rule 26(b)(2)(B) governs limitations of discovery and provides that a party is not obligated to provide discovery of electronically stored information from sources that the party identifies as not reasonably accessible due to undue burden or cost.

 

Under current case law, reasonably accessible information may include live data on hard drives, servers, and redundant systems. Information considered not reasonably accessible might include deleted information, backup tapes, data in remote storage locations, and data stored in technologically outdated media.

 

A healthcare organization’s attorneys and legal department must have a clear understanding of a client’s computer network and data storage system to determine whether information is “reasonably accessible. “Also, this rule does not relieve a party of its duty to preserve evidence, even that which may not be reasonably accessible.

 

This tip is from The Practical Guide to Release of Information published by HCPro, Inc. Check future issues of EHR Connection for more information about the e-discovery rules.