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In search of reasonableness

28 May 2009 / Chris Paley-menzies
Issue: 7371 / Categories: Features , E-disclosure , Profession , Technology
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Chris Paley-Menzies on the changing approach to e-disclosure

The case of Digicel vs Cable & Wireless, where Digicel alleged that Cable & Wireless deliberately conspired to delay interconnection with Digicel's telephone network, has brought the issue of electronic disclosure the forefront of the legal mind. The recent decision made in the case on the inadequacy of the search efforts made by Cable & Wireless will have an effect upon how e-disclosure is approached in the future.

In their efforts, Cable & Wireless racked up some £2m and nearly 7,000 hours of legal time and yet their key word search was still not deemed “reasonable”. The decision to force the company to do further searches on Digicel's terms was also compounded by the fact that they will now have to include the restoration of backed-up tape data. The problem now faced by Cable & Wireless would seem to be one of numbers. From the original list of 10 key words used, over 1,000,000 documents were returned and these were, expensively, whittled down to

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NEWS
AlphaBiolabs has made a £500 donation to Sean’s Place, a men’s mental health charity based in Sefton, as part of its ongoing Giving Back initiative
Human rights lawyers, social justice champion, co-founder of the law firm Bindmans, and NLJ columnist Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC has died at the age of 92 years
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
Writing in NLJ this week, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers argues that the ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal responsibility—covering bribery, tax evasion, and fraud—should be embraced, not resisted
Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
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