Last week, Craig Ball released his Electronic Evidence Workbook 2022. Is it comprehensive? Of course! And this is just part one!  😉  But there are seven pages that do a tremendous job of explaining why you should care about the rest of the workbook.

Craig discusses it (and provides a link to it) in his latest blog post on his excellent Ball in Your Court blog (Electronic Evidence Workbook 2022). As Craig notes, it’s “used in my three credit E-Discovery and Digital Evidence course at the University of Texas Law School, UT Computer Science School and UT School of Information. I prefer this release over any before because it presents the material more accessibly and logically, better tying the technical underpinnings to trial practice.”

Craig also states in the blog post: “Recognizing that a crucial component of competence in electronic discovery is mastering the arcane argot of legaltech, I’ve added Vital Vocabulary lists throughout, concluded chapters with Key Takeaway callouts and, for the first time, broken the Workbook into volumes such that this release covers just the first eight classes, almost entirely Information Technology.” He concludes his blog post by stating: “The law students at UT Austin pay almost $60,000 per year for their educations; I’ll settle for a little feedback from you when you read it.”

So, why should you read Craig’s Electronic Evidence Workbook 2022? Craig explains that in the second section of the book, titled “Why E-Discovery and Digital Evidence?”. He discusses a case that involves quite a bit of potential ESI in discovery. Not a “bet-the-company patent fight between technology titans”, but “the everyday case where a customer slips and falls in a grocery store”, with contentions that it was due to grease on the floor near a display of roasted chickens.

This “everyday case” includes potential ESI from the defendant from store video cameras, store policies and procedures, similar prior incidents, incident investigations and transactions of other customers near the time of the accident. It also includes potential ESI from the plaintiff from medical records and expenses, lost earnings documentation, texts, call records, application data or other evidence of phone usage near the time of the accident, social networking posts (that illustrate plaintiff’s state of mind, physical activity, alcohol or drugs consumption) and device data (e.g., Fitbit or smart watch) that illustrates level of activity before and after the accident.

Craig also discusses the lack of cooperation that often ensues in these cases, the eventual loss of evidence that often happens and the motions for sanctions that typically follow when that evidence is lost. It’s seven pages that do a great job of illustrating why you should want to read the remaining 400+ pages of the Workbook.

The exercises themselves discuss everything from metadata to encoding to the perfect preservation letter (covered here by me, it was my top viewed post of 2020) to data mapping to forensic imaging to preserving a mobile device and more. Even eDiscovery rules are discussed (both Federal rules and the Texas rule which was last updated last century and is so old, it addresses “electronic or magnetic data”). And he discusses “The Big Six” (plus) sources of “the ESI elephant” to consider in discovery. And there’s more to come by Spring Break, with “new practical exercises in Search, Processing, Production, Review and Meet & Confer and introducing new tools”.

As I mentioned, Craig’s Electronic Evidence Workbook 2022 is comprehensive, but a terrific compilation for his students (kudos to UT Austin, by the way, for offering his course year after year). To continue with the elephant theme that Craig raised above, the answer to the question: “how do you eat an elephant?” is “one bite at a time”. If you’re interested in learning about eDiscovery, take your time and go through his Workbook. If you’re not interested in learning about eDiscovery, read the seven-page second section of the book to better understand why you should be interested.

So, what do you think?  Are you going to read Craig’s Electronic Evidence Workbook 2022? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.