The Delaware Court of Chancery recently announced that it is updating its Rules 26, 30, 34, and 45, effective Jan. 1, 2013, “to account for modern discovery demands” regarding electronically stored information, and to bring the court’s rules “in line with current practice.”
Many of the changes mirror the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure addressing electronic data discovery and ESI for example, requesting a certain form of production of ESI under Rule 34. The court also is expanding it “Guidelines for Practitioners,” originally released in January 2012. The “Discovery Guidelines” explain the court’s expectations regarding parties’ responsibility to confer early and often, about EDD procedures, the overall scope of discovery, preferred procedures for collection and review of discoverable material (including ESI), the privilege-assertion process, and the role of Delaware counsel in the discovery process.
