There's a lot of interest in e-discovery these days. A recent Law.com article on the topic offers tips from someone who's dealt with electronic evidence in a civil litigation context.

Reading it prompted me to spotlight three recent courthouse library purchases, all dealing with e-discovery and electronic evidence in a Canadian context.

Electronic Evidence & e-Discovery

David Wotherspoon and Alex Cameron’s Electronic Evidence and E-Discovery deals primarily with the civil litigation context.

 Chapters include:

• electronic evidence and discovery
• electronic document management: put policies in place before litigation
• obligations to preserve and disclose (once litigation is underway)
• gathering and preservation of electronic evidence
• using and challenging electronic evidence.

This book also includes a checklist for a document management policy, a list of questions to ask IT staff, and an e-discovery checklist. The Table of Common Statutory Record Keeping Requirements in Canada shows relevant federal statutes. The authors refer to the Ontario E-Discovery Implementation Committee model documents. Cases from across Canada, as well as the UK and the US, are cited.

Like all our circulating titles, you can request this book be mailed, free of charge, to your law firm anywhere in British Columbia. Only need a few pages and can’t wait for the snail mail? Fill out an online copy order; we’ll scan and email them to you directly.

Electronic Evidence in Canada

In Electronic Evidence in Canada, Graham J. Underwood and Jonathan Penner want to help practitioners who are "not familiar with the unique characteristics of electronically stored evidence, and...uncertain how established rules of evidence apply to it." This looseleaf is geared to both criminal and civil trials.

It is available for in-library use at the Vancouver and Victoria courthouse libraries; fill out an online copy order to have selected pages scanned and emailed to you directly.

Topics include:

• an overview of electronically stored information (ESI): including types, characteristics, and admissibility
• pre-litigation management: records management, classification, and disposition & destruction of electronic records, as well as the obligation to preserve ESI in contemplation of litigation
• managing in a proceeding: includes obligation to disclose, managing production, considerations in criminal proceedings, spoilation, and authentication
• use and presentation at trial: admissibility generally; admissibility as real, documentary, or demonstrative evidence; working with ESI at trial

The authors cite the Rules of Court for all provinces, even mentioning BC's much-anticipated new Rules, in their discussion of the scope of production.

Electronic Documents: Records Management, e-Discovery, and Trial

Finally, the looseleaf Electronic Documents: Records Management, E-Discovery and Trial is similar to the above texts, but goes into greater depth for many areas. It's edited by Bryan Finlay, Marie-Andrée Vermette, and Michael Statham.

It is available for in-library use at the Vancouver courthouse library; fill out an online copy order to have selected pages scanned and emailed to you directly.

Topics include:

• sources and types of electronic documents: provincial, federal, US, UK, and Australian definitions; technical explanations; special characteristics
• management: need for a records management policy (RMP), and what to consider when developing it; elements of RMPs; includes records retentions requirements under Limitations, Employment Standards, and Income Tax acts (Federal, provinces, and territories)
• legal framework: overview of traditional discovery rules; guidelines for e-discovery (overview of the Sedona Principles for the U.S. and for Canada); challenges of e-discovery
• preservation and collection: of your client's electronic documents; of your opponent's electronic documents; spoilation; sanctions for failing to preserve
• processing and review: ensuring documents are accessible, relevant, and not privileged, before presenting to opposing counsel
• production and use at trial: includes production and admissibility; use of electronic evidence and litigation support software

This book includes commentary on BC's civil Practice Direction, Re: Electronic Evidence and the current BC Rules of Court (as of February 2010).

The recent Canadian launch of the iPad prompted some of you to rush out and buy the latest and glossiest Apple product. Those of you not immediately seduced by the shiny reflective screens, but still considering making the purchase, might be asking if it is actually, you know, useful. 

CBA Special Advisor Richard Susskind was impressed with his iPad, but skeptical of its utility for lawyers.  He notes that the “big problem for lawyers…is that neither Microsoft Word nor PowerPoint runs on the iPad.” 

Susskind’s conclusion on the device is that for those “indifferent to high-tech devices and who like immediate gratification from their technology, the first iteration of the iPad, unlike the BlackBerry, will not dominate the legal world.”

Portland lawyer Josh Barrett seems to think it has a lot of potential as a tool for legal professionals.  He describes a lunch meeting where he used the iPad to review PDF documents with a client:

As the client and I discussed the issues, I was able to quickly pull up the relevant documents. With the screen rotation locked, we were able to pass the iPad back and forth like a pad of paper without the iPad trying to reorient itself every second. I was able to jot a few notes by quickly flipping to Penultimate. Using my finger to scratch a quick note worked as well as a notepad in this case.

Barrett reviews the Documents to Go app, a work-around for accessing Microsoft Word and Excel documents on the iPad. In only a few minutes of experimenting, he identified problems. He warns against “using Documents to Go with any critical or time sensitive files.” 

Many users sing the iPad’s praises as a reader. Head over to Slaw if you want to see Connie Crosby’s images of what books look like in both the Kobo and the iBooks apps.

And finally: our own Drew Jackson got his hands on an iPad at the Vancouver launch. He was immediately able to confirm that yes, it is a great way to view HelpMap, a tool on Clicklaw you can use to refer clients to other legal services in your community.

Drew's photos demonstrate that the iPad's an attractive web browsing tool.

Asked & Answered is a resource we've had for a while at the Courthouse Library, but it's still growing!  It's a database of some tricky research questions and issues that we've encountered, or legal information sources we've come upon that we anticipate being of future use. It provides starting points for legal research, with reference to online sources and the Courthouse Library's collection. Users of our old website may remember it as A-Z Knowledgebase.

For example, we have information about locating an annullment precedent, finding incorporation dates for municipalities, and tracking down older labour relations board decisions. We recently added our answer to an issue that appeared on a legal research listserv, dealing with the availability of UK court documents and filings. And were you aware that the Revised Statutes of BC, 1996, didn't actually come into force until April 21, 1997? Learn the in-force dates of all Revised Statutes of BC.

We're in the process of adding items from the popular case names database that we had on the previous incarnation of our website.  For example, the entry on "A Man's Home is his Castle" includes two citations on the topic, from England and Canada.  The original resolves the early seventeenth-century belief that "if thieves come to a man's house to rob or murder, and if the owner or his servants kill any of the thieves in defence of himself and his house, it is no felony and he shall lose nothing" (Semayne's Case, (1604) 77 E.R. 194).  Of course, the related twentieth-century SCC case is less bloody - but we link to that too (R. v. Colet, [1981] 1 S.C.R. 2).

And as always, you can call the reference phones at the Vancouver Courthouse Library between 8:30-4:30, Monday to Friday, for referral to legal information sources (604.660.2841 or 1.800.665.2570).