Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review
eDiscovery in New Zealand Under the New Amended Rules
April 17, 2012
By Daniel B. Garrie & Hon. David Harvey
Discovery is the identification of information. Electronic Discovery focuses on the discovery of digital information. The equivalent of triplicate paper copies of a single letter in the digital era are the monthly backup tapes that potentially store 12 duplicates of the same e-mail message during the course of a year.
Electronic data, be it in a permanent or ephemeral state, can be stored in a multitude of devices (home computer, server, tape, smart phone, iPhone, iPad, or laptop) and paper is stored in a single place with a single point of access. Paper data is captured with pen to paper on a tangible physical medium that one can touch, smell, and feel and an e-mail is a string of 1’s and 0’s translated by a device for whatever medium is receiving the data and presenting to the user. This article considers recent changes to discovery rules in New Zealand.
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