In November 2020, I told you about the new industry initiative from The George Washington University Law School (GWU) to develop a practical proportionality relevancy-and-burden assessment model.  And last May, I covered an article that discussed the goal of the New Framework for a Discovery Proportionality Model. Now, the public comment version of the New Framework is out!

GWU published the public comment version of Discovery Proportionality Model: A New Framework earlier this month and it’s available here. It’s a 55-page PDF file that includes the contributions of more than 50 lawyers and experts who drafted the New Framework, which was originally inspired and derived from InsightOptix’s patented EvidenceOptix^® software.

The New Framework starts by plotting custodians on a “heat map” (shown on page 8) based on the importance of the discoverable information that they possess or control and the degree of burden in accessing and recovering that information from their individual sources (devices). It also includes a “Discovery Roadmap” (Appendix I) and an “Itemized Cost Prediction Calculator” (Appendix F) with a link to a full calculator in Excel.

The public comment version of Discovery Proportionality Model: A New Framework will be published for public comment for an eight-week period. You can submit comments to humphreyscenter@law.gwu.edu.

A bench-bar conference will be held in April 2022 to review the New Framework. The drafting team will review all public comments and revise the New Framework, if appropriate. A steering committee of 15 lawyers, judges, and eDiscovery experts developed an outline, recommended candidates to draft the New Framework, and serves as an editorial board, under the auspices of the GW Complex Litigation Center. The editorial board will make final edits, subject to the Center’s oversight.

There will also likely be one or more webinars to discuss the New Framework in more detail, so look for details on that soon.

So, what do you think?  Do you think a framework for proportionality is a good thing for the industry?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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