Extract from Doug Austin’s article “You Can Address the Inclusive Emails in Discovery Without Producing Them”
One of the biggest time savers in document review is the ability to identify email threads and review only the fully inclusive emails in the thread (i.e., the ones that include unique information). That’s not always the last email in the thread (as there can be some side conversations within a thread), but discovery platforms today are great about finding those unique emails within a thread and suppressing the rest during review.
As any of us can relate, sometimes email conversations can go on for days, weeks or even months, so every email saved in review is time and money saved as well.
Recently, I covered a case that a lot of people noticed, because of how it handled producing evidence from email threads. It’s an important case to understand – both in terms of what you should do, and in terms of what you don’t have to do regarding email threads.
In re Actos End Payor Antitrust Litigation
This is a complex antitrust class action (which I covered here) over alleged false patent claims made to the FDA regarding Takeda’s diabetes drug ACTOS. It was filed way back in 2013 – yet, rolling productions didn’t begin happening until February of this year after extensive motion practice and appeals. Even the ESI protocol the parties agreed to was approved by the Court way back in March 2015.
