CALIFORNIA PASSES NEW ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY ACT EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

On June 29, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California’s Electronic Discovery Act into law. Because the Act contains an urgency provision, it is effective as of June 29, 2009.

Assembly Bill 5, which was signed by the governor Monday, immediately enacts new electronic discovery provisions into the state Code of Civil Procedure. The ultimate goal of the bill is to improve discovery practices for lawyers on both sides of a case.

The bill -- supported by the Civil Justice Association of California and Consumer Attorneys of California -- establishes procedures for a person to obtain discovery of electronically stored information.


The full text of the Act can be read here

All discovery propounded or responded to must now comply with the new law. These rules are very similar to the recent revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and bring California in line with the federal e-discovery standards and for the first time offer state litigants specific definitions of what constitutes electronically stored information.

Under the new Act, the party requesting production of electronically stored information (ESI) may specify the format in which it should be produced (e.g., native format, or TIFF, with or without certain metadata, etc.). If no format is specified, the responding party must produce the ESI in either the same format as it is ordinarily kept (likely in native format or an archived/compressed format) or in a "reasonably usable" form. The responding party need only produce the ESI in one form. If a requesting party fails to specify the format of production in its request, and the responding party produces the ESI in a "reasonably usable format," the requesting party cannot then compel a different form of production.

Lawmakers adopted almost identical legislation last year only to have the governor veto it during a bitter budget battle with the legislature.

The Vendor Client Relationship ??

While I know that there are always 2 sides to every story after 17 years of providing litigation support services; I found this video quite amusing. I'm confident I am not the only vendor who can relate.

The phrase "the customer is always right" has been the mantra of Superior Document Services since the beginning. While I know that we have been stepped on by the big boys or at times taken advantage of - I always have strived to treat our customers just like I would like to be treated. Sometimes it works out; sometimes it doesn't. Either way I go to bed with a clean concience.

Looking forward to seeing the rebuttal video from the "customers" Point of View

RIP: Gary Gerloff

Saturday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend 2009 was asthetically perfect. Pristine blue skies, low hanging, almost 3d clouds ...smooth sailing as they say

The days perfection broken by voicemail.

Gary Gerloff, who passed away Saturday morning, made an indelible impression on not only me but on everyone he encountered. A gregarious,  warm, larger than life  character -Gary always brought his "A" game. Always.

He had a natural ability to draw everyone to him; an uncanny abilitiy to make bring out the best in everyone he encountered and an amazing knack for encountering life's most interesting characters. To put it in layman's terms: following Gary through a 7-11 could leave you smiling for days.



Gary was blessed and in turn we were blessed to know him. One adventure of many comes to mind - I had the great pleasure of accompanying Gary to Vegas for three nights of Grateful Dead concerts - and a lifetime of memories; From meeting and partying with Jerry Garcia's guitar builder Doug Irwin to being threatened by a drug dealer on the Vegas strip with an Uzi to winning a grand playing blackjack at 4 AM - hell it was all expected with Mr Gerloff. His magic was contagious.



Gerloff generosity was well known in the community . He helped launch an annual concert series to support the Positive Vibe Café, a restaurant in South Richmond with many handicapped employees He performed at numerous fundraising events, helped organize an anual benefit for the Massey Cancer Center and was on the program committee for the Richmond Folk Festival.

I found this exceptional interview with Gary over at a blog called cool stretch of highway - and being at a loss for words as I try and wrap my head around this tragedy - well I can't say it any better than Gary himself can - click over to check out the entire interview.

After 25 years on the road, in the noisy clubs and the beery bars, he’s signed a major-league Hollywood contract, and now his “Psychedelic Dixieland” music, once confined to Virginia and the Carolinas, delights fans the world over.

He’s never left his hometown for more than a month. And if the former capital of the Confederacy, an aloof and well-mannered place, never will be considered a musical Mecca, it does hold special appeal for him.

“I just love the dignity of living in a once-defeated city,” he says. “A great deal of pride once carried us here. It gave us a noble cloak, and adorned us with the air of some ancient Greek city-state. Richmond is like some old whore or piece of architecture. She’s been around forever, it seems. But when you notice her in a certain light, why, there’s a real charm to behold.”

He’s talking in his basement over a 20-foot bar with three sinks. (“One to wash your hands. One to wash your face. And one to throw up in.”) Behind the bar are display cases jam-packed with the things he holds precious: bobble-head dolls of Satchel Paige, Grady Little and Keith Richards; miniature ceramic hand-painted jazz ensembles from New Orleans; an autograph from Hunter S. Thompson; a collection of Three Stooges shot glasses; an English nose whistle; two James Brown posters from concerts at The Arena; a stuffed and mounted bear’s head casually draped in a feathered Mardi Gras mask and beads; and a 1970s photograph of his late brother Peter, arm-in-arm with the family’s maid.

Behind him, on a 9-foot Brunswick regulation pool table, lie seven bamboo fly rods, an assortment of air horns, one birdhouse in the form of the Parthenon and two Halicrafter short wave radios. Behind the pool table stand 15 vintage guitars and six worn-out, antique tube amplifiers.

He says he’s tempted to call his 1960s split level, with its 1400 sq. ft. terraced deck, “a tumbled-down shack in BigFoot country,” but instead refers to it as his roost, his outpost and his thinking line of defense. He lives here on a densely wooded hill a half-mile from the James River with his wife who’s an accomplished pianist, his 11-year-old daughter who’s an aspiring writer, and his seven-year-old son, whom he tags a “yellow-haired monkey.”

All are unimpressed with his musical persona, one that plumbs the depths of American music and its attendant emotions.
.... he labels himself a relic from another era – a living fossil. “I see myself as a bluesman first. Second, I am a champion of heartfelt emotions. I like awkward displays of love. I am an encourager of dreams,” he says.

Gerloff picked up his first guitar at age 12, and promptly abandoned all other ambitions; music became his life.

His music became our life. I am honored to have know you Gary Gerloff

Happy Trails my brother.

Compiled Services : Gaining Traction one User at a Time

As you may know – Superior Document Services has a new company COMPILED SERVICES ; that writes small software applications for the litigation support industry.

Compiled Services began as an “in-house” software development group in June of 2005. The group’s initial goal was to provide software utilities to aid in meeting tight deadlines while respecting strict quality guidelines. The utilities developed ranged from simple console applications to full scale image processing and form recognition based applications. Our goal was simple: develop easy-to-use software while increasing production capacity of the e-discovery department.

Our intial free offering - ReadyConvert - helps litigation support teams by quickly and accurately verifying their product deliverables.

Yesterday we noticed a HUGE increase in the number of downloads and after some internal investigation discovered that the application is now available on CNET. I am stil not convinced that this is the source of the major activity shift but as Bob Dylan once sang "something is happening and I don't know why it is"

Needless to say we are excited about our product and even more excited to see it getting traction not only in the USA but as far away as Australia.

Ready Convert on Cnet


If you haven’t had a chance please check us out on cnet or on our web page www.compiledservices.com

As always we truly appreciate your support/ Comments and suggestions most welcome.

All our products conform to the guidelines outlined by the EDRM for electronic discovery.

I can't help myself...

Have you ever wondered why we still send our legislators to Wash D.C.? If we can bank online, trade stocks online and send videos of our children to the other side of the world in seconds why can't our legislators work & vote from home? Not only would they have to hire staff locally & boost our local jobs, but the Lobbyists wouldn't be able to corral all of them.....hmmm

ReadyPrint 1.1 released

RICHMOND, VA (April 16, 2009) – Compiled Services, the company behind the load file verification and conversion tool ReadyConvert, is pleased to release a new version of ReadyPrint. ReadyPrint streamlines the document printing process for service providers and law firms alike.

ReadyPrint allows litigation support professionals to print directly from image folders or by utilizing industry standard load files. New to version 1.1, users can now easily print metadata on custom folder and document separator sheets to help organize and identify documents.

Designed with high speed printing in mind, ReadyPrint combines documents by a set number of pages to reduce the overall printer cycle time, while maintaining folder and document sheets.

ReadyPrint handles industry standard load files, including Summation, Concordance, IPRO and EDRM XML. Additionally, ReadyPrint supports most common image formats, including PDF, TIF and JPG files.

ReadyPrint benefits litigation support professionals in many ways:

• Print single-page and multi-page images,
• Design and preview folder and cover sheets containing metadata fields,
• Print document cover sheets separate from documents,
• Designate up to three paper trays allowing different color separator sheets,
• Print common image formats, including TIF, PDF and JPG files,
• Send documents in groups to allow for high speed printing,
• Auto-rotate landscape images,
• Verify page compression and identify color documents before printing and,
• Track the number of documents, pages, folder and cover sheets printed.

To get started, try our fully functioning 14-day trial by visiting http://compiledserv ices.com/ readyprint/ . To learn more about ReadyPrint and how it can benefit your firm, contact our sales team at sales@compiledservi ces.com today.

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Compiled Services
http://www.compiled services. com

Confidentiality vs marketing

I've been providing litigation support services for more than 15 years. In all that time I have worked on innumerable cases that are / were on the front page of the national papers or are the flavor of the day on the nightly news. These cases may have involved Tobacco; Finance; Construction; Mergers and Aquisitions, Corrupt Politicians; or sometimes even a poor celebrity who has run afould of the law. Whatever the situation the bottom line is that I cannot talk about the details. Heck, I don't want to even talk about who I am working for or what is involved in broad general terms. At times I have stopped reading the paper when working on a high profile case. Its just easier that way...I don't need to know the backstory.

Lawyers are often required by law to keep confidential anything pertaining to the representation of a client. The duty of confidentiality is much broader than the attorney-client evidentiary privilege, which only covers communications between the attorney and the client. Superior Document Services has in a sense evolved into a legal "Switzerland". We understand that every client; has a right to privacy and confidentiality. We are impartial to a fault and fastidious in our protection of our clients and their cient's identities.

Superior Document Services has no exterior signage beckoning the general public; a locked secure facility and digital camera's at each and every point of egress and ingress. More importantly I have many trusted long term employees bound by formal confidentiality agreements. The bottom line is "CONFIDENTIALITY IS A GIVEN"

So - this all leads to a conundrum in litigation support marketing. I can't shout from the rooftops that I did ALL the ediscovery work on the Exxon Valdez lawsuits ( I didn't ) without violating; in my mind at least, the implied trust. So as you can see by the above picture published by the AP; Superior Document Services got some free publicity the other day during the trial of a major major ex NFL star. I still am thrilled when I see someone carrying a box with my Superior logo down the street so as you can imagine I was ecstatic when I got calls from friends that our boxes were prominently featured on both local and national tv news.

After some internal personal debate - I'm posting the picture here. I think its pretty ...err, cool?