Because You Need to Know: Monthly News Round-Up for April 2021

A monthly round-up of eDiscovery industry news stories, useful publications, and notable cases of which you should be aware from the preceding month

Welcome to “Because You Need to Know,” XDD’s monthly news round-up.  In these posts, we gather together interesting articles, noteworthy cases, new publications, and XDD materials from the preceding month.  This post gathers items of interest from April 2021.

Industry News Stories

Interesting topics in the news in April included the XDD-Consilio Merger, new social media developments, and new privacy considerations:

• XDD-Consilio Merger
  • Consilio and Xact Data Discovery Announce Merger, With Eye on Broader Legal Services Expansion
  • Consilio and Xact Data Discovery Agree to Combine Strengths to Deliver a More Complete Client Experience

• Social Media Developments
  • Case Addresses First Amendment Issues When Judge Gets Disparaged Online
  • Plaintiffs Social Media ESI Is Increasingly Discoverable. Will It Chill Meritless Filings?
  • Circuit Issues New §230 Ruling as Law’s Future Remains Uncertain
  • California Judges Who Use Social Media Face New Warning From Ethics Committee

• Privacy Considerations
  • In-House Counsel Be Prepared: More Data Subject Requests Are Coming
  • Balancing Privacy, Quality and Unbiased Data Is Difficult, but Not Impossible
  • As States Offer Data Breach ‘Safe Harbors,’ Not All Companies Are Receptive
  • A New Florida Privacy Law Could Be Coming—And It’s Strict

Notable Cases

New eDiscovery cases discussed in April included:

• When Does My Duty To Preserve End?
• Court Issues Default Judgment Sanction Against Defendants for Violations in Opioid Litigation
• Court Directs Plaintiff to Produce Data from Deactivated Facebook Account
• Court Authorizes Mass Social Media Discovery from 250 Plaintiffs
• 2nd Circuit Case Finding Standing to Seek ‘Increased Risk’ of Fraud in Data Breaches Seen as Game-Changer

Useful Publications

New industry publications released in April included:

• The Sedona Canada Principles Addressing Electronic Discovery, Third Edition
• The Sedona Conference Commentary on Quantifying Violations under U.S. Privacy Laws, Public Comment Version

XDD Materials

In April, XDD published two new blog articles and a new educational webinar:

• Blog Articles
  • Another Case Discussing Discovery from Slack
  • Pursuit of Overbroad Discovery Leads to Cost-Shifting of Almost $850,000

• Educational Webinar
  • An Ounce of Prevention: eDiscovery Project Planning – We have a lot of maxims about the value of preparation, and perhaps the most well-known is “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Investing the time and effort required for effective planning, from the beginning, produces downstream benefits including saved time, saved money, reduced risk, and increased defensibility.  The clichés became clichés for a reason.  In this free, one-hour webinar, XDD Director of Education Matthew Verga and XDD VP of eDiscovery Operations Sean King discuss various aspects of effective eDiscovery project planning – including checklists for each step – to equip you with the knowledge you need to reduce your chaos, your costs, and your risks.

As always, we welcome your input regarding future topics for our webinars, articles, and white papers.  Share your interests with us here.