Would you buy a used car from this man?

By | 2nd October 2013

Richard Nixon was President of the United States from 1969 until he resigned in disgrace after Watergate in 1974. Before that, he was the unsuccessful candidate in the 1960 presidential election which brought John F Kennedy to the White House, and I recall that this poster of an unshaven and rather sinister looking “Tricky Dicky” contributed to Nixon’s defeat in that election, Kennedy winning by one of the smallest margins in American Presidential history.

My purpose today is not to enter into a discourse about American politics. I want to draw attention instead to three recent cases on the general subject of e-disclosure/discovery, time limits and computer assisted review or predictive coding.

What has that got to do with Richard Nixon, you may well ask?

My answer is, nothing! But there is a connection to the car, used or otherwise, which you will see and understand if you read on.

One of the interesting things about coming back to work after holiday is to flick through the blogs written by people I know and like and whose articles always carry a huge amount of information which is relevant to those of us/you who have to deal with this stuff!

Three people whose opinions are always worth reading and whose writings often bring a smile to my lips are Ralph Losey, Craig Ball and Chris Dale. How fortunate I am, therefore, to find an occasion where I can shoehorn all three into one post and educate and inform at the same time!

The main contributors on this occasion are Chris and Ralph (the latter including a reference in his article to another article by Craig, as to which see below).

The issues involved are as follows:

  • how the courts here in England interpret the new CPR rules in relation to time limits,
  • the apparent difficulties of finding a suitable vendor to provide predictive coding in the State of Alabama, and
  • penalties for failing to comply with Jackson procedural requirements.

The articles speak for themselves and I can do no better than give you the links and invite you to follow them.

If you are not to miss two recent examples of what the courts are doing now, this summer, in relation to the new CPR here, you need to read about the cases of Raayan Al Iraq Co Limited v Trans Victory Machine Inc (Andrew Smith J on 23rd August 2013) and  Jaswat Singh Bharj v Sukwinder Singh (HHJ Dight, Central London County Court June 7th 2013.

And if you want to be entertained by a story from the other side of the Atlantic, read Ralph Losey on the case of Northstar Marine Inc v Huffman in Alabama.

It is all in the articles whose links are above.

 My gratitude to these authors knows no bounds!