Oot and Shoshtari Provide a Pragmatic Approach to Discovery

Shook Partner Patrick Oot and Associate Adam Shoshtari have authored "A Litigator's Pragmatic Approach to Avoiding Discovery Disasters" for the American Bar Association's Litigation Journal. Oot and Shoshtari offer a practical guide for handling electronically stored information (ESI) during discovery, arguing that every litigator should be able to explain ESI issues in plain English. "[D]iscovery is litigation," they say. "Cases are won (and lost) on data."
 
Oot and Shoshtari give a brief overview of how litigators can use the 2015 updates to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to counter opposing parties' discovery motions. "The changes are so important that Chief Justice Roberts highlighted them in his 2015 year end report," they explain. "Litigators should heed the Court's guidance and adopt plans for deploying these tools on matters. They are designed to make the process more efficient."
 
The authors also provide recommendations for proceeding through the discovery process, concluding, "While many of these quick tips might seem like common sense to a seasoned practitioner, a rookie ESI litigator can deploy these strategies to make discovery more efficient, avoid discovery disputes, and better protect a client’s ESI sources. In sum, knowing the rules, assigning the proper resources, documenting processes, and checking your work will place any practitioner on the path to proportional discovery."