E-Discovery, Production and Non-Party Privacy

I presented at the Canadian Bar Association Legal Conference and Expo on Tuesday on “e-discovery, production and non-party privacy.”

I started by stating that:

• the litigator’s role is to help the trier of fact uncover the truth;
• the litigator takes information and uses it as evidence to do so; and
• it is essential to the administration of justice that this use of information be unfettered.

That stated, I asked the audience to not to lambaste me for preaching that litigators ought to take steps to protect privacy in going about their work. From presenting and from listening to co-panelist Patricia Kosseim launch the OPC’s new “PIPEDA and Your Practice” handbook for lawyers it is clear to me that many of the privacy issues facing litigators have little to do with litigation and civil procedure itself.

My slides are below.