Sharing highly sensitive business information with an adversary is a concern in any litigation, especially if the litigation involves industry competitors. Whether it’s product development plans or marketing strategies, the fear is that a competitor will use that information to better position itself against your business.
Given these fears, it is not surprising that the initial reaction of many lawyers is to redact sensitive business information not relevant to the case at hand. Taking such a course, however, is not without cost and risk. Documents with nonrelevant business information may be extensive, and redaction of such documents can more than double discovery-related costs. Further, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not provide for relevancy redactions, and many courts do not recognize a party’s right to unilaterally redact nonrelevant information. Courts have even gone so far as to sanction parties for such redactions. A business could be faced with a large redaction bill without gaining any of the intended benefits.
