Indiana Gets on the E-Discovery Bandwagon

Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard says, when discussing court reform, Indiana is “rarely first, occasionally last, frequently early.” Well, when looking at the ediscovery rule amendments, Chief Justice Shepard was spot-on. As you may recall, in December 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”) were amended to include provisions governing the discovery of Electronically Stored Information (“ESI”). During 2007, many states followed suit and adopted some version of the amendments at the state level. In September 2007, Indiana formally adopted several sections of the amendments of the FRCP into the Indiana Rules of Civil Procedure ("IRCP"). The amendments to the IRCP went into effect on January 1, 2008 and effect most civil litigation pending in Indiana state courts. This article will briefly discuss the rule changes and their potential impact on civil litigation. The sections below in italics are the amendments to the IRCP...(click here).