Connecticut Adopts E-Discovery Rules

Connecticut has adopted e-discovery rules which will take effect on January 1, 2012. Ryan Ryan Deluca LLP partner Chuck Deluca chaired the Discovery Subcommittee of the Civil Commission which drafted the Rules and their Commentary. These Rules were approved by the Civil Commission, the Rules Committee of the Superior Court and by all of the Superior Court Judges at their annual meeting in June 2011. The highlights of these Rules, which have been incorporated into the Connecticut Practice Book, are as follows:

• The Rules make it clear that electronically stored information is discoverable if it is likely to lead to admissible evidence, is not privileged and is reasonably accessible;
• Electronically stored information shall be produced in the form in which it is ordinarily maintained or in a form that is reasonably usable;
• The judicial authority may not impose sanctions on a party for failure to provide electronically stored information lost as a result of the routine, good-faith operation of the system or process in the absence of showing intentional actions designed to avoid known preservation obligations;
• The new Rules contain a “claw back” provision to recover inadvertently disclosed privilege or trial preparation materials;
• When ordering the disclosure of electronically stored information, the court should consider allocating the expense of the discovery and whether the amount in controversy and importance of the issues being litigated warrant such discovery.

Connecticut has now joined the long line of states which have adopted some form of discovery rules pertaining to electronically stored information. The new Connecticut rules are based upon the Uniform Rules Relating to the Discovery of Electronically Stored Information drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws which were approved and recommended for enactment in all states in 2007.

Please contact Charles A. Deluca at (203) 357-9200 or cdeluca [at] ryandelucalaw [dot] com should you have any questions concerning these newly adopted Rules.