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Editor Bio
Gregg Mayer is a journalist and lawyer with a keen interest in the rapidly evolving world of e-Discovery. Gregg has published numerous articles, including writing for law journals and the American Bar Association. Gregg served as editor-in-chief of the Mississippi Law Journal. Before practicing law, Gregg worked as a newspaper reporter for six years.
With Increase In e-Discovery, Courts Turn To Special Masters
Posted by Gregg Mayer on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Businesses are not the only ones trying to keep up with the increasing demands of e-Discovery. The legal system, including judges with no particular technical knowledge, has to keep pace too.
As a result, courts are turning more frequently to “special masters” to handle e-Discovery matters. A special master is an appointed mediator for complex e-Discovery who facilitates the exchange of electronically stored information (“ESI”) between the parties. The special master works on behalf of the judge during the discovery process.
According to a recent article:
Special e-discovery masters have become prevalent because over the last few years, “the level of technical detail simply outgrew what judges and counsel could comprehend,” explained Craig Ball, a trial lawyer and technologist in Austin, Texas, who has served as a special master in approximately two dozen cases. “When neither the attorneys nor the court felt able to ask the right questions or understand the answers, that created the need for a technical special master,” he said.
While some tasks an e-discovery special master might take on are strictly technical, others require legal knowledge and expertise. A special master must “speak fluent litigator and fluent geek,” Ball said. “I couldn’t do what I do without both extensive trial experience and the training and background that qualifies me as a certified computer forensic examiner.”
Read more about special masters here and in The Daily Record (subscription required).
Posted in: Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
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