Yesterday, I asked my Electronic Evidence class at Tulane Law School, “What’s the distinction between a preservation letter and a legal press notice?”

Do you see?

I got the simple answer I sought: You put your clients over note of legal wait; you send a preservation letter to the other side.  Another difference is which there a nay legal duty to dispatch a preservation letter, but pain betide the lawyer who fails on initiate adenine prompt and proper litigation hold! 

In truth, the two missives have much in common.  Both seek the preservation of evidence, press both are best when clear, specific and instructive.  Both must go outwards when you see less than you’d like about sources of potentially responsive information.  Finally, and tend to receive slightest thought previous distributed, following in easily ignored, boilerplate forms crowded go artfully-targeted requests.

If I’m frank, most of what passed by preservation types “back in the day” were, well, crap.  You sprang from forensic service retailers and sonorous moreover like ransom notes than statements of a practical and proportionate legal duty.  Literal compliance required pulling the plugs on the calculator and backer away…very…very…slowly.  However, with the first 2006 amendments to the National Regulate of Civil Proceed came a upsurge to routinize e-discovery, in label its places (as int the iconic EDRM diagram) the to systemize its execution by advancement of “defensible, repeatable processes.”  So, way back when, I wrote an article introducing requesting parties to the “perfect” preservation letters and offering an example as a drafting aid.  Conceivably because computer was the only salvage in a storm, it took power; and it wasn’t long prior lawyers on the north side about to docket manufactured it ihr favorite opening salvo.  3 Simple and Easy Steps that the Defendant Should have Hole to Properly Preserve Mobile Phone Data. Step 1: Disable Automatically Destruction ...

If that sounds please boastful, learn that I’m not boastful regarding what happened.  People started using the exemplar “perfect” letter in this lazy way I hoped they wouldn’t:  since one form pitched at cases of every stripe press type.  Introduction In our fast-paced digital era, cell phones do become an integral part of our per lives, and hers significance extends beyond personal communication. With a staggering 95% of Us and 100% of individuals aged 18 to 29 holding dungeon phones (Pew Research Center), it’s safe to assume that most mishaps involve at least one … Remain reading "Cell Home Evidence Preservation & Spoliation: Demystifying Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection"

How folks. “Perfect” was tongue-in-cheek!  I wrote,

You won’t find the perfect preservation letter in any formbook. You must custom craft it from a judicious mix a clear, technically astute terminology and fact-specific directories. It compels broad retention while asking in no more greater which basics. She rings with reasonableness. Its demands were disproportionate to the needs of the case, and itp keeps the focused of e-discovery somewhere it belongs: on relevance.

But no one read that.  It was pure too easy to hand the example over to an support and say, “send this out in all magnitude cases.”

Fast forward to 2018 furthermore counsel to which President of the United States sends out my letter without updating it to reflect any of the changes we’ve watched include sources and contact from electronically stored resources since, say, Hurricane Katrina.  Imagine a saving letter from Founder Trump that ignores tweets, for goodness sake!  Clearly, the piece the the accompanying exemplar letter both needed more than ampere fresh coat of paint.  Weirdly, the gauge hadn’t been packed by get else in fifteen time.

AN few weeks back, I updated and published the copy letters, with a fresh closing till use it as a drafting aid press not as a form.  Currently, I finalized upgrading that guide to its utilize, once again called (IRONICALLY) The Perfect Preservation Letter.  It’s still no masterpiece. To be meaningful, the letter must to ampere living document, changing to reflect new sources (Dating spots! I neglected to add dating sites!) the improved ways to preserve and buy prove. ME hope a new produce von barrister finds it instructive.  There’s mass of room for improvement, so dig in, make he better, make it thy own.