It’s international eDiscovery day! I missed this when it was announced but thought I would circle back to it. Recently, EDRM announced publication of Version 1.0 of an APAC Primer for eDiscovery! Here’s how to get it!
eDiscovery practices and procedures in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region vary greatly depending on the origins of a given jurisdiction’s legal system. Countries with common law systems, such as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore, have well-established eDiscovery practices and procedures in their respective court rules. In jurisdictions based on civil law or hybrid legal systems orders and/or directions for discovery are less common. However, discovery processes in the APAC region are commonly used in international arbitrations, for document production pursuant to notices or subpoenas to produce documents in foreign regulatory investigations, and for internal investigations.
Announced here, Version 1.0 of the Primer on eDiscovery in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region was originally chartered by The Sedona Conference®, but EDRM took over publishing this APAC Primer for eDiscovery at the request of the project team and Sedona. Susan Bennett, Project Trustee and Principal Drafter, led a global team to create the Primer. EDRM stated it plans to webify the content and provide pages for each country, much like the interactive state rules for the next version of the primer.
The APAC primer for eDiscovery is 84 pages which includes a very informative 4-page introduction, with brief discussions of each of the jurisdictions covered in the primer, followed by a 2-page Jurisdiction Overview of Discovery and Privacy Regulations. The remainder of the primer goes into depth for each of the jurisdictions – Australia, China, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore – covered in the Primer, with discussions for each jurisdiction of the judicial system, discovery requirements and guiding principles, eDiscovery, additional considerations, impact of privacy laws and an overall summary. So, depending on your interests, you may want to read the entire guide or just the jurisdiction(s) that pertain to you.
The Primer is available for download here. This is the public comment version and, while the public comment period has closed, those interested in joining or contributing can reach out to info@edrm.net.
So, what do you think? Do you conduct eDiscovery in the Asia Pacific? 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.
