When it comes to eDiscovery, if Craig Ball speaks, you listen.
Ball is an industry expert who reaches his base in the form of blog posts on his website, Ball In Your Court. His most recent post, The Annotated ESI Protocol, discusses best practices and offers commentary. His “goal is to offer lawyers who are neither tech-savvy nor e-discovery aficionados a practical, contextual breakdown of a basic ESI protocol–more than simply a form to deploy blindly or an abstract discussion.”
What is an ESI Protocol?
According to JD Supra, an ESI Protocol “is a negotiated document that expressly states how the parties to a litigation should produce electronically stored information (ESI). The ESI protocol assures against surprises and commands that ESI is preserved, collected, processed, and produced in an agreed upon, readily usable format.” These are usually negotiated at Rule 26(f) conferences, which is when the parties to a case come together to discuss the process and timeline of Discovery.
Ball’s 32-page annotated guide has two columns: one with Exemplar Protocol Language, and the second with commentary and explanation. As eDiscovery Today put it, “So, the explanation for each section is provided as you go, which makes it easy to develop that understanding quickly!”