More on Employee Expectation of Electronic Privacy

Adam Losey expands the exploration of employee expectations of electronic privacy in Clicking Away Confidentiality: Workplace Waiver of Attorney-Client Privilege, 60 Fla. L.R. 1179 (Dec. 2008).

Digital Signatures

Ernest Svensen has everything you need to know about digital signatures and how to create them.

Spoliation Sanctions: Gutman v. Klein

Gutman v. Klein, Case No. 03-Civ. 1570 (BMC), 2008 WL 5084182 (E.D.N.Y.) (Dec. 2, 2008) approving Report & Recommendation, 2008 WL 4682208 (Oct. 15, 2008) provides an excellent discussion of spoliation and consequent sanctions in the context of electronic discovery.

The defendant searched for and downloaded software to wipe his hard drive of evidence relevant to the case. Instead of using the data wiping software, the defendant manually deleted files. Then he reinstalled Windows XP, presumably to cover his tracks. Stroz Friedberg did a forensic examination of the laptop. Much of the spoliation evidence was identified through Stroz Friedberg’s analysis of file system meta data, file meta data, and system logs.

Based on this spoliation, the magistrate judge recommended a sanction of default judgment against the defendant and a sanction of attorneys fees related to the discovery.

An excellent resource.

Hat tip: Electronic Discovery

Florida Bar Journal Articles

This month's Florida Bar Journal contains two good basic articles on law and technology: What Every Attorney Needs to Know About Electronic Technology, by D. Patricia Wallace; and Metadata: The Ghosts Haunting e-Documents, by David Hricik and Chase Edward Scott.

Computer "Basics"

David Pogue's blog in the New York Times recently had a great "compendium of the essential tech bits that you just assume everyone knows–but you’re wrong." That's why I put "basics" in quotes; as basic as some of these tips may seem, there are many who don't know them.

Since David invited readers to "Clip, save and pass along," I'm doing just that. In the next couple days, I'll extract from the column and the over 1100 comments (at this writing) my favorites and link to them in three categories: General Tips, Internet Tips, and Microsoft Office Tips. Here's a sample:

• You can open the Start menu by tapping the key with the Windows logo on it.

• You can tap the Space bar to scroll down a page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.

Authenticating ESI

A few months ago, Judge Grimm of the Maryland U.S. District Court has authored a magnum opus on the issues associated with authentication and admissibility of ESI. Read it on the court's website here, or on Westlaw at Lorraine v. Markel American Ins. Co., 241 F.R.D. 534 (D. Md. 2007).

Email Tips

Came across a couple good posts on email today. This one by Raymond Ward on The New Legal Writer (an excellent legal writing blog, by the way), led me to Lynn Gaetner-Johnson's Business Writer blog, and this summary of email do's and don'ts .

Autocorrect

Here's a good post on creative ways to use autocorrect in MS Word. To summarize the list:

• judgement=judgment
• dd=Δ
• pp=Π
• ss=§
• court=your mom (Alright, this last one is only as a practical joke to put on someone else's computer (and to make sure you're paying attention).)
  

Personally, I prefer hotkeys for the section and paragraph symbols (Ctrl+s and ctrl+p, respectively), and use autocorrect not only for spelling mistakes, but also for phrases (e.g., vty = very truly yours; mdc = Miami-Dade County, etc.) What does autocorrect do for you?

Good Technology Intro

Larry Cohan of the Legal Intellingencer has a good article entitled, "Using Technology at Trial, or Not." Particularly useful to me is his focus on medical malpractice litigation.

Colorado Joins Metadata Ethics Ruling Parade

The Colorado Bar Association has ruled that a lawyer may ethically review a document for metadata. Legal Blog Watch has a summary of how the Colorado opinion fits in with the other ethics opinions on the subject to date.

Another Good Article on Qualcom

This article by Leonard Deutchman in Pennsylvania Law Weekly is a good take on how the lawyers got to be in the Qualcom mess, and how to keep your firm out

Shading alternate lines in Excel

Just added a link to a long overdue article explaining how to shade every other line in Excel. I can't count the number of times I've tried to do it manually, only to have to add or delete a line and then start over. Thank you, Office Watch!

Qualcomm Reverberations

The e-Discovery Team has a very nice summary and critique of a recent article on e-discovery by the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association.

Daylights Savings Time Blues

If your all-day appointments are now two-day appointments thanks to the daylight saving time shift, read this post in Office Watch.

Word's Hidden Calculator

Very informative piece on Office Watch on how to use the hidden calculator in Word.

Help Jurors Remember Your Witnesses

Trial Tips has a incredibly simple and useful suggestion for closing arguments: Take pictures of your witnesses, and use them to help the jury remember them. Brilliant!

Adverse inference granted where key employee of producer deletes e-mail when she should have anticipated its use in litigation

Larry Wescott of the Electronic Discovery Blog has a nice explanation of Connor v. Sun Trust Bank, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16917 (N.D. Ga. Mar. 5, 2008) here.

Microsoft Photo Info enables easy editing of "metadata" for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer

Microsoft Photo Info is a software add-in for Microsoft Windows that allows photographers to add, change and delete common "metadata" properties for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer. It also provides enhanced "hover tips" and additional sort properties for digital photographs in Explorer (in Details view).

Thorough Review of Qualcomm Sanction Saga

Here is Alan Cohen's excellent Corporate Counsel magazine article, "Qualcomm's Hard-Learned Lessons."

Email to Attorney NOT Privileged

In Scott v. Beth Israel Medical Center Inc., No. 602736/06, 2007 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 7114 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty Oct. 17, 2007), the court held that an employee's emails to his attorney, using the employer’s e-mail system, were not protected by attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine under New York state law. The court concluded that the employer had an e-mail policy banning personal use, and that the employee had constructive notice that the employer had the right to monitor e-mails sent over its network.

Gmail Tips and Tricks - 35 Cool Gmail Hacks

More great Gmail Tips and Tricks here.

Federal Civil Practice Bulletin: Senate Judiciary Committee Passes Evidence Rule 502

Federal Civil Practice Bulletin: Senate Judiciary Committee Passes Evidence Rule 502

E-Discovery: Who's on the Team?

Ralph Losey has an excellent post on When and Why You Should Start an E-Discovery Team.

Gmail Power tips

Although I don't use G-mail for work, I do use it regularly for everything else, on my Blackberry and my PCs. Here's a great set of power tips.