Source: https://e-discoveryteamtraining.com/section-3/sec3modm/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 10:16:20+00:00

Document:
Metadata, Objections as to Form of Production, Golf and Metadata, and Metadata Bloopers.
What is the emerging standard of metadata production? This Module addresses the issue of metadata production, and cases where it is compelled or prohibited. This is important to understand. So many lawyers mess this up. They are actually afraid of metadata. It is the boogie man of e-discovery. In fact, metadata is usually quite boring, once understood, and it is a waste of time and money to argue about it with opposing counsel. This module examines metadata thorough a few of the top legal opinions in this area and even tell you how to use golf as an analogy for this topic. The module closes by examining one of the most famous mistakes in metadata disclosure, one made by our supposedly smart CIA spy types. This will help you to understand the basis of the widespread fear of metadata. The assignment at the end includes a different, but related, issue of cyber security and the now infamous Wikileaks.
All computer files have metadata associated or within them that provides information about the files. For instance, email software includes information in email files about its author, creation date, attachments, and identities of all recipients, including those who received a cc or bcc. Metadata even tells you if an email has been opened by a recipient. The printout of an email, which is essentially a TIFF version of the email, may not show the blind copies, and certainly will not tell you if it has been read or not. The metadata of an email will also maintain the history of the email, its conversation thread, such as who replied and who forwarded. Also, unless it is an Outlook email stripped out of its PST file into a MSG file, it will tell you in what folder the email was filed by its custodian.
The key case on metadata is Williams v. Sprint/United Management Company, 230 F.R.D. 640 (D. Kan. 2005). Here, terminated employees brought a class action and sought Excel spreadsheets with all metadata intact, including embedded formulae. The court held that under “emerging standards of electronic discovery”, metadata ordinarily visible to users of Excel spreadsheets “should presumptively be treated as part of the ‘document’ and should thus be discoverable.” Id. at 652.
The next word in this controversy of “emerging standards”comes out of a consolidated group of class action cases styled In Re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2650 (E.D. NY. January 12, 2007). As in Kentucky Speedway, Wyeth and Williams II, the defendants here sought the production of the metadata for documents already produced without metadata. (Actually, defendants never filed a motion to compel, they just raised the issue at a conference, and that was part of the problem.) In addition, the defendants wanted the plaintiffs to produce all metadata on documents they had not yet produced.
Thus this metadata case, like Williams I and II, supports the proposition that the emerging standard requires metadata production when requested and not objected to, but at the same time emphasizes the need for early, clear requests, and prompt objections if the metadata is not provided.
I am often asked for a list of the most common objections to requests for production in Native format. Of course, this is the format where you are likely to receive the most original metadata. I say “most,” and not “all,” because metadata about a particular file that resides outside of the file itself, such as metadata maintained and stored in operating system files, would not necessarily be included in a production of that file in native format, or any other format for that matter. You would have to request production of the applicable operating files for that. The same holds true for the metadata of the folder structure for Outlook emails in a PST file. That information is only contained in the packing file that holds all of a user’s emails, the PST file, and is not contained in the individual email file itself.
Production in “native” format means production of the computer files, or ESI, in the format in which they were originally created and maintained. Williams v. Sprint/United, 2006 WL 3691604 (D.Kan. 2006) (“Williams II“). Most of the time this means files are produced in the format of the software application used to create the ESI. Thus, for example, if you produce a file created by Microsoft Word, this typically means production in the Microsoft Word format, wherein the file ends with the .DOC extension. This is not necessarily always the case, however, because you can also use Microsoft Word software to save your documents in other formats, say for instance, HTML format. Some people might do that, say for instance to facilitate posting the document on the web.
The fundamental metadata case, Williams v. Sprint/United, 230 F.R.D. 640 (D.Kan. 2005) (Williams I), mentions the four most popular objections to native file production. The fact that these objections all failed in Williams I is testament only to their weak inapplicability to the facts and circumstances of the particular motion presented, and the opinion of Magistrate Judge Waxse. The arguments and objections were good, and this is where any practitioner would want to begin their analysis. These same arguments may succeed with other facts, or even in similar facts with a different judge. See Bolton v. Sprint/United, 2007 WL 756644 (D. Kan. March 8, 2007).
3. The metadata in the native files is not relevant to plaintiff’s claims. (This is the strongest argument for objection to production of metadata and is in accord with Sedona Principle 12 commentary, which states that most metadata is useless and a waste of time to review. So, if the requesting party argues for native file format on the basis that it needs the metadata, challenge the relevance of the metadata. Unlike the plaintiffs in Williams I who made a strong showing that they needed the native spreadsheets, the requesting party may be unable to show any particular need for native file production. See Williams II supra, and Wyeth v. Impax Laboratories, Inc., 2006 WL 391331 (D. Del. 2006)).
In addition, by far the best objection you can make, when the facts allow it, is that you have already made production in a non-native format and new 2015 revised Rule 34(b)(2)(E)(iii) protects you from a second production. See eg. Williams II and In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2650 (E.D. N.Y., Jan. 12, 2007).
Another good objection is found in Rule 34(b)(2)(E)(ii), which states if format is not requested, a producing party may produce in either the form in which it is “originally maintained” (in other words, native form), or in a form that is “reasonably useable.” Thus if native is not specified, this allows any other form that is reasonably useable. Typically a format is reasonably usable if it is searchable, and other criteria are met, primarily related to functionality and the circumstances of the case.
Even if native is requested, under some circumstances you can object on the basis of “burdensomeness,” and argue for production in another reasonably useable format that would be less expensive and time consuming for you to accomplish for some reason. An example of this is the difficulty of partial redaction of many native files, or marking them as confidential.
You can, of course, object to the production of the ESI requested in general, at least on a category by category basis, and not just limit your objection to the format. This is what Sprint/United did in Bolton, where they were able to obtain protection against several categories on the grounds that the ESI requested was overly broad, irrelevant and unduly burdensome. These were the grounds that were successful in Bolton, not the four native format objections. In addition, in appropriate circumstances, you can object on the basis of the inaccessibility of the ESI requested under Rule 26(b)(2)(B) because of undue burden or cost to restore or search.
Thanks to Judge Lungstrum in Williams v. Sprint/United Management Company, 2006 WL 3691604 (D.Kan. Dec. 12, 2006) (Williams II), a golf analogy has now entered the world of e-discovery. Williams II, just like Williams I, delves into the depths of metadata and the circumstances when it must be produced. Williams v. Sprint/United Management Company, 230 F.R.D. 640 (D. Kan. 2005) (Williams I).
I think we have to keep in mind that from the defendant’s perspective-to the extent that you’re asking for information that they have got to go chase down, it’s not the defendant’s fault for the purpose of this case that they don’t keep their records in a form that’s more easily discoverable, yet on the other hand, that’s not an excuse not to give it up either if they have got it some place. I mean, it cuts both ways. I mean, we have to play it like it lies. See April 26, 2006 Tr. p. 39.
This may become a popular analogy in this hotly contested area of e-discovery law. Interestingly, although Judge Lungstrum announced the general rule, his Magistrate Waxse applied a “no mulligans allowed” exception of his own creation, and allowed the defendant to improve its lie (so to speak). The defendant’s production of 11,000 emails with all metadata stripped was permitted to stand, and the plaintiff’s call for penalty strokes was rejected. But the short explanation is that the plaintiff did not request metadata in the original request, and now wanted defendants to redo the entire production. The plaintiff essentially wanted a mulligan, and the Magistrate would not allow it, citing Rule 34(iii) that only requires a production in one form.
Metadata, the hidden data contained in computer files, makes many people nervous, but especially lawyers. They are uncomfortable with anything hidden, or for that matter anything poorly understood, and metadata qualifies as both. Adding to this discomfort are the horror stories, well known in the profession, of other counsel accidentally producing documents to opposing counsel that contain embarrassing metadata. For instance, a Word document containing secret comments they added, then hid, and then forgot to delete or “scrub” before production.
This can be very serious for attorneys because of the high ethical duty they are under to maintain the secrecy of the confidential information disclosed to them by their clients. For this reason, attorneys, more than most, tend to worry about inadvertently disclosing these secrets by metadata. The concern is magnified for litigation attorneys who have opposing counsel watching their every move for mistakes. That is one of the reasons for the advent of “clawback” agreements and 2005 revised Rule 26(b)(5)(B). If a privileged communication in a computer file is accidentally disclosed, say because it was contained in metadata that they did not see, they want to get it back, and prevent a waiver.
For these reasons it is especially troubling to lawyers to hear that even the best professionals at secret keeping, our country’s top spies, mess up on metadata. If anyone is serious about secrecy, it is spies. Their very lives may be at stake. So if espionage professionals accidentally reveal state secrets because of metadata, then it could happen to anyone.
Metadata is by definition out of sight. And what is out of sight is out of mind, and so easily forgotten. The latest metadata mistake story proves this point in classic “spy versus spy” fashion.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (“DNI”) is the highest intelligence agency in the United States. The DNI oversees all federal intelligence agencies, including the CIA. The size of the total US intelligence budget that DNI oversees is one of the government’s most closely guarded secrets.
On May 14, 2007, a Senior Procurement Executive of DNI gave an unclassified presentation to a group of outside contractors in Colorado entitled “Procuring the Future.” Her PowerPoint included a slide with two graphics depicting the trend of award dollars to contractors from 1995 to 2006. Because these figures are highly classified, a scale of the total number of award dollars was omitted from the Y-axis of the bar chart. The government contractors were only shown the graphical bars, and were left to guess what the actual expenditures were that the bars depicted.
Apparently the DNI employee had used this same PowerPoint slide before to make classified presentations to persons with top secret clearance. I presume this because the slide contains metadata revealing the actual amount of the award dollars. It would have been simple to reconfigure the graphic in PowerPoint to display the actual numbers to an audience with clearance.
The metadata revealing the classified information is not visible when the unclassified version of the PowerPoint is shown. But when you open the native file using PowerPoint software, it is easy to make this embedded information visible. All you have to do is double click on the bar chart shown above and a spreadsheet is revealed. It is that easy.
The spreadsheet embedded as metadata in the graphic image controls the appearance of the bar graph. If you change the numbers in the spreadsheet, the columns change. Further, if you change the configuration of the graphic, the numbers will not be revealed at all. This is exactly what they did in the unclassified version of the PowerPoint shown in Colorado. In this way the secret numbers in the graphic were not displayed when the PowerPoint was shown.
So far, so good. The secrecy of the nation’s total intelligence budget was maintained at the conference. The big mistake was made after the conference when someone in the agency posted the PowerPoint file on the Defense Intelligence Agency website in native format. There anyone could (and did) download the PowerPoint file onto their own computers. (Spies are like litigation counsel, they have opposing spies that watch their every move and look for mistakes.) Once the file was downloaded and opened in PowerPoint, the embedded numbers underlying the expenditure graphic were quickly uncovered. One of America’s top secrets was lost due to careless handling of metadata.
The key mistake was to have posted the PowerPoint in its original native format. The file should have been flattened first and posted as an image file. Then the metadata would have been stripped, and the secret would have been safe. Alternatively, the graphic in slide eleven should have had the secret spreadsheet removed. But the top spies forgot to do that. Out of sight, out of mind. Metadata like that is a time bomb waiting to happen.
Do not look for the PowerPoint on the Defense Intelligence Agency website. It was removed as soon as the press reported the error, and reported the once-secret intelligence budget. Still, I had no difficulty finding another copy of it based on later press reports and a quick search on Google. Information in today’s Internet Age is like a cat; once it is out of the bag, you can never get it back in. This is the stuff of nightmares of spies and lawyers alike.
SUPPLEMENTAL READING: Review the cases and webs linked to or cited in this module. Remember, for those of you who wanted to be tested, your general knowledge is tested on the exam essay questions. So, the more you read and understand the better. The modules are the launch pad for further study, not the final destination.
EXERCISE: Search and find the PowerPoint discussed. It’s out there. Find another more recent example in case law or the news regarding a situation where disclosure of metadata was important or, better yet, embarrassing.
Another Exercise: On a related, but separate issue there is the problem of ESI security, secrecy, and history changing phenomena like Wikileaks. What is your view on this? Can information that must be seen by large numbers of people still be kept secret in this day and age? Is Wikileaks itself a good thing or a bad thing? What steps do you think large organizations should take, if any, to try to keep their secrets, secret? This is a good one to speak with your friends about. By the way, do you know who LulzSec is? They and their colleagues could impact your life someday. They may already have and you don’t know it. Another good one to talk about. Check out HackerLaw.org to find out more.
Professor Losey tells us that a golf analogy has now entered the world of e-discovery. In a footnote to Williams II, JUdge Lungstrum announced the general rule that actors on the e-discovery stage “have to play it as it lies.”In the same opinion, Magistrate Waxse applied what I would call the “no mulligans corollary.” So I began to wonder whether there are other golf analogies that might fit the discovery settting. In particular, I thought about one of the “winter rules” of golf – especially northern golf- that allows a player in the fairway to “roll the ball over” to where the dormant grass is thicker. And sure enough, amidst the ongoing discovery disputes of Williams II, we find Judge Waxse characterizing the actual production as “a series of rolling productions. These occur, we can suppose, because parties are ever hopeful of getting a better whack at the ball. What are the other golf analogies that might be helpful – or at least amusing. And as the professor would surely say, let’s be creative.

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