EDRM Model Code of ConductThe mission of the EDRM Model Code of Conduct Project is to develop voluntary ethical guidelines for providers and consumers concerning electronic discovery, akin to the guidelines under which attorneys, court personnel and business in general operate.
The EDRM Model Code of Conduct consists of six sets of principles and corollaries. The materials for each set consist of:
- Principle
- Corollary
- Best Practices with Examples
- Discussion
The Project members have tailored the principles, best practices and examples that follow to meet needs of the electronic information industry. While they are designed for Service Providers, defined to include software developers and firms, consultants, law firms, providers of electronic information processing, and similar people and entities, to adopt, they carry with them certain auxiliary functions. These auxiliary functions apply to the clients of the Service Provider. We call these “corollaries,” and each Principle is paired with a Corollary.
For instance, implicit in Principle 1, that Service Providers perform their work in a professional manner is that the client of the Service Provider disclose sufficient information to make that possible. But, further, the Principles and Corollaries are designed so that a client (be it a law firm or the ultimate consumer) will realize that there are certain issues that perhaps it has not considered before, but that it should consider. We believe that we are the first to attempt to define a code of conduct for Service Providers. Consequently, some of the Principles may seem obvious (we hope so), but we believe all six Principles are essential to an orderly and professional approach to electronic information management.
We begin from the premise that all participants will act in good faith, and attempt to adopt principles that further integrity, security and transparency. Because EDRM is the Electronic Discovery Resource Model, we must bear in mind the necessary relationship between what we do here and the practice of law. But beyond litigation, we believe these Principles apply in any interaction between a Service Provider and a “client,” however defined, whether in litigation, government compliance or other arena. Many of the members of this Project are lawyers and may be governed by additional ethical guidelines. We, however, try to avoid making this into an extension of the legal rules of ethical behavior. Likewise, we assume that the norms of business ethics apply as well as the specific Principles perhaps unique to this space.
The Principles are not inflexible “laws.” Rather, the Project understands that different circumstances may require different applications of the Principles. For instance, Principle 6 concerns security. Obviously, different situations will require a Service Provider to implement different types of security. Each section begins with a general principle. It is followed by a discussion of that principle. Then we include best practices that may be seen as corollaries to the principle. Finally, we include a few examples, tagged to correspond to the best practices. Not every best practice has an example. Some seem so obvious that examples are unnecessary.
The Principles and their Corollaries are:
Principle 1 – Professionalism |
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| Principle: | Service providers should perform their work in a competent, accurate, timely and cost-effective manner, adhering to the highest standards of professionalism and ethical conduct. |
| Corollary: | Clients should be forthright, accurate and timely in their communications with service providers and act at all times in accordance with the highest professional standards of ethical conduct. |
Principle 2 – Engagement |
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| Principle: | At the earliest possible time, Service Providers should establish the parameters of the engagement with the client. |
| Corollary: | At the earliest possible time, Clients should provide sufficiently detailed information about the subject matter and parties involved in the litigation to allow the Service Provider to define the engagement. |
Principle 3 – Disclosure |
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| Principle: | Service Providers should maintain open communication with their clients. |
| Corollary: | Clients should facilitate open communication with Service Providers by allowing them sufficient access to information to determine conflicts and to revise processes as necessary. |
Principle 4 – Sound Process |
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| Principle: | Service Providers should use technology and methodology appropriate to meet their clients’ needs. |
| Corollary: | Clients have an obligation to attempt to understand sufficient technology to be “informed consumers.” |
Principle 5 – Cooperation |
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| Principle: | Service Providers should be mindful that the best interest of the client dictates that each Service Provider engaged in the EDD process should fully cooperate with each other in order to produce a quality deliverable in a timely manner. The best interest of the client should control the behavior among Service Providers engaged to work together on a matter. |
| Corollary: | Clients must understand that their best interests (and the best interests of their clients) necessitate allowing Service Providers to work together; and, consequently, Clients should encourage Service Providers to work together as much as is practicable. |
Principle 6 – Security and Confidentiality |
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| Corollary: | |
[...] Model Code of Conduct (2007): A draft Model Code of Conduct, which provides recommended guidelines for software and services providers (akin to those under which attorneys, court personnel and others in the legal space must operate) is now available at: http://edrm.net/resources/guidelines/edrm-model-code-of-conduct [...]