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Absolute Judicial Immunity Applies Even IF a Judge’s Decision Was “Wholly” Made by AI
Plaintiff, T. Matthew Phillips sued the Hon. Mari D. Parlade, a State-court Judge, asserting that Judge Parlade had used A.I. to decide his case. The federal court dismissed the case based on absolute judicial immunity. ...
How Does an “Attorney’s Eyes Only” Order Apply to an Unrepresented Party?
A New York federal court ordered that Attorney’s Eyes Only material produced in redacted form to an unrepresented defendant must come with a detailed redaction log, so they can meaningfully decide whether to challenge the...
It May Be an Abuse of Discretion to Grant Summary Judgment for a Defendant Before Deciding a Plaintiff’s Sanctions Motion
Michael D. Berman examines Smith v. Polk Co., where the court addressed two spoliation sanctions motions before granting summary judgment. Applying Shaw v. Foreman, the court recognized that a sanctions motion involving evidence significant to...
Discovery Is Quietly Reorganizing Itself Around AI
A panel of eDiscovery and legal-tech leaders from HaystackID’s most recent webcast reports that AI-assisted review has moved from experimentation to default practice far faster than technology-assisted review did a decade ago, reshaping early case...
Condominium Construction Defect Litigation Leads to Search and Custodian Rulings
Michael D. Berman examines a Vermont federal court’s order requiring a condominium association to disclose its keyword search methodology in detail, while rejecting a developer’s bid to force ESI collection from every current and former...
An Attorney-Client Communication Advising Spoliation is Not Privileged
Michael D. Berman examines a ruling that advice to spoliate evidence is not privileged, though the court found no actual destruction because both pre- and post-advice versions of Meta’s disputed documents survived and were ordered...
“Ten depositions are too few for this case…. But twenty-seven depositions is too many….”
A federal court in a LinkedIn subscriber class action alleging monopolization split the difference between the parties’ deposition requests, holding that being a document custodian isn’t enough on its own to justify a deposition.
Two Debatable Holdings
Michael D. Berman examines a S.D.N.Y. discovery order requiring production of every document that hits an agreed search term, without a responsiveness review, and questions whether the ruling reaches beyond the scope allowed under Rule...
![An ESI Protocol Does Not [Necessarily?] Supersede the Discovery Rules, by Michael D. Berman, E-Discovery LLC.](https://edrm.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Berman-Blog-An-ESI-Protocol-Does-Not-Necessarily-Supersede-the-Discovery-Rules.png)
An ESI Protocol Does Not [Necessarily?] Supersede the Discovery Rules
A federal court held that an ESI Protocol implements the Federal Rules rather than replacing them, rejecting a defendant’s argument that it could skip a plainly relevant custodian simply because he wasn’t named in the...
A Deep Dive Into the Pikesville, MD, Racist/Antisemitic Deepfake Audio
A viral deepfake audio recording nearly destroyed a Maryland principal’s career and led to criminal charges, two civil suits, and a Daubert hearing where a forensic audio expert could not confirm AI was used, but...
Restrictions on Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools to Process Disclosure Materials
Michael Berman reports on a case with restrictions on the use of AI tools to handle disclosure materials and questions what happens in a clawback situation.
EDRM Project and Advisory Council Leaders Author Groundbreaking Paper on GenAI Prompt Protection
A new paper argues that prompts attorneys write to instruct generative AI in document review deserve work-product protection, distinguishing them from search terms that courts have traditionally required parties to exchange.