On December 1st 2006 Supreme Court's Extensive Changes to Federal Electronic Discovery Rules Will Take Place

• On April 12, 2006, the United States Supreme Court approved, without comment or dissent, proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that will significantly alter the way in which litigants must handle discovery of "electronically stored information.“ The new rules and amendments have been sent to Congress and will take effect on December 1, 2006, unless Congress enacts legislation to modify, reject, or defer the amendments. Among other changes, the proposed amendments will modify Rules 16, 26, 33, 34, 37, and 45, as follows:
  
• Rule 16(b): The court’s pre-trial scheduling order can include provisions concerning electronically stored information;
• Rule 26(b)(2): There is no duty to produce data reasonably identified as inaccessible, though the court may still order production upon good cause, with conditions;
• Rule 26(b)(5): Creates a “claw back” procedure whereby a party can request the return of inadvertently produced privileged documents;
• Rule 26(f): Parties must meet and confer on e-discovery issues before the pre-trial scheduling conference;
• Rule 33(d): Parties may reference “electronically stored information” as a type of business record from which answers to interrogatories may be derived;
• Rule 34: Production request may specify desired e-data format and response must state any objection to requested format; “ordinary” (a/k/a “native”) file format or “reasonably useable” form is production default;
• Rule 37: Provides “safe harbor” (i.e., no discovery sanctions) for inadvertent e-data loss if based on “routine, good faith operation” of an IT system; and
• Rule 45: Applicable new e-discovery rules extend to subpoenas, too.
  

For those of you who are working on 2007 budgets..

Just another Cyber Monday..Why Not Buy Your Registration for TAWPI 2007 Today?

Top 5 Reasons to attend TAWPI 2007 in Boston Aug. 12th to 14th:

1. Education - TAWPI has announced that we will have 3 simultaneous & educationally packed Forums which attendees can participate in all 3 with one expo floor with the top industry vendors. Forums will include the Remote Check Capture Forum, the Imaging, Forms and Capture Forum and the Remittance/Payments Forum. As always TAWPI presentation's will take a deep look at the practicality and implementation of these key business area's as well as technological advancements, ROI analysis, risk management and how to improve your work processes within your organization.

2. Savings - Register before December 31st and bring a colleague for free. 2 for 1 special!

3. Networking - TAWPI always brings together the best of the best in the industry. Whether you are an end-user in charge of a large or small document capture operation or accounts receivables, a treasury manager looking for an ROI analysis in rolling out a Remote Check Capture solution, remittance processor, or mail processor this event is the best way for you to network with like peers in the payments, remote check capture, and imaging industry.

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4. Keynotes & more Keynotes - Along with a main keynote presentation to kick off Monday morning- Each individual forum will have an industry thought leader keynote presentation in the Remote Check Capture, the Imaging and Forms Processing, and the Payment Forum's. Hear first hand an independendent analytical viewpoint from these leaders on industry trends, best practices, and technological advancements.

5. Location - Boston in August. Can you beat that? Bring the whole family and check out the Red Sox (their playing by the way) along with Fenway Park, Fanuel Hall, Newbury street, duck tours, the North End, the Freedom Trail, and much more....

visit: http://www.tawpi.org/forumexpo.html to register.

Company Merger's and Acquisitions. How is this affecting you?

Over the course of the last year (it may even be longer than this) it just seems there have been way too many company mergers and acquisitions in our industry. Just the other day Oracle purchased Stellant. From an association's perspective I guess this is status quo? But I've been wondering how this affects the end-users out there? Have you had enough of these mergers? Have the specialized small businesses with white glove service disappeared? From your perspective have you noticed a decline or increase in service levels? Have your providers offered you a commitment in technological advancement and process improvement regardless of these mergers and have they followed through with it? Just curious...

This is TAWPI's First Blog Entry

What do you think?