Given the proliferation of smartphones, the emergence of cloud computing, and the exponential increase in the amount of data the average person generates and stores on a daily basis, the days of lawyers ignoring issues relating to electronically stored information, or ESI, are firmly in the past.
Indeed, changes to court rules have left practitioners with no choice but to come to grips with this changed reality, at least in theory. Unfortunately, theory only goes so far; even today, it is not uncommon to find practitioners who are not altogether comfortable with ESI-related issues, and others who will avoid addressing ESI-related issues as long as possible.
