In light of the recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regarding discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”), a joint bar-court committee consisting of Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm and members of the Bar of this Court as well as technical consultants has developed a proposed protocol for use in cases where ESI may be involved. This is a working model that has not been adopted by the court but may be of assistance to counsel.

It is the intent of the joint committee to review the Proposed Protocol periodically to determine if revisions would be appropriate, and after a sufficient period of time to evaluate the proposed protocol has passed, to determine whether to recommend to the Court that more formal guidelines or local rules relating to ESI be considered for adoption.

To further this process, any comments and suggestions may be e-mailed to mdd_voyager@mdd.uscourts.gov.

The Suggested Protocol for Discovery of Electronically Stored Information is available on our website.