ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure because they were amended in December 2006, and have been revised several times since then to specifically address electronically stored information (ESI) and to better define the ways ESI needs to be handled. All courts, especially the federal courts, are coming to expect attorneys and organizations and even individuals to have a very firm grasp on all of their ESI. In order for attorneys to follow the prescripts of Rule 26, they have a stated duty to understand their client’s information technology systems and their policies and procedures for records retention. Information that can be gleaned via query to a database has been ruled accessible as well. Organizations will have the duty to preserve ESI but only to produce it if it has been agreed upon by all parties as relevant and important to the case. The plaintiff argued that its social media information should be considered private.
