Extract from Ella Sherman’s article “The Number of E-Discovery Decisions Have Nearly Doubled Since 2019”
The number of e-discovery decisions in civil cases has exceeded 5,000 for the last four years after decision totals spiked in 2020 to 4,202 decisions—up from 2,886 in 2019, according to a recent report.
At the time eDiscovery Assistant’s 2024 Case Law Report published last week, the number of civil cases filed in U.S. district courts jumped by 22% in 2024, and judges issued 5,131 e-discovery decisions, down from 5,614 in 2023.
The high number of discovery decisions issued is likely to continue from year to year as cases increase in complexity when it comes to electronically stored information (ESI), eDiscovery Assistant founder and CEO Kelly Twigger told Legaltech News.
“Now we’re talking about a much more specific complex issue … One of the cases that’s in the report talks about [whether] I can redact for non-responsiveness and that’s an issue that’s been covered as it pertains to emails, but hadn’t been covered as it pertains to text messages,” she said.
