There is Only One Way to Rock Search Terms

http://ow.ly/8dY92

An article by Joshua Gilliland, Esq. posted on his blog the Bow Tie Law Blog.

The article discusses the case of  In Re National Association of Music Merchants, Musical Instruments and Equipment Antitrust Litigation.  In this case the court refused to permit additional requested search terms during the discovery phase of the litigation.

After a partial initial review of the electronically stored information, based upon search terms that were agreed upon by the parties, the plaintiff sought additional search terms seeking acronyms that were not part of the initial search requests.  The defendants objected based on several grounds, including costs, delays, plaintiffs failure to raise timely objections to defendants plans, and the failure of the plaintiffs to cooperate in prior meet and confers.

The article provides information regarding the courts judgement in this dispute, "Moreover, “[W]hile key word searching is a recognized method to winnow relevant documents from large repositories, use of this technique must be a cooperative and informed process.” In re Nat’l Ass’n of Music Merchs., at *21-22, citing In re Seroquel Products Liability Litigation, 244 F.R.D. 650, 662 (M.D. Fla. 2007).

The Court stated that the “preferable” method to reduce challenges to search terms is a “full and transparent discussion among counsel of the search terminology.” In re Nat’l Ass’n of Music Merchs., at *22, citing The Sedona Conference Best Practices Commentary on the Use of Search & Information Retrieval Methods in E-Discovery, 8 Sedona Conf. J. 189, 204 (Fall 2007)."

In addition, the article states, "The Court held the Plaintiff had “ample opportunity to obtain discovery regarding abbreviations and acronyms” and that the burden and expense of searching the abbreviations/ acronyms outweighed its likely benefit. In re Nat’l Ass’n of Music Merchs., at *22-23, citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(ii), (iii)."