Litigation Support and Electronic Disclosure

What is LĩST? - The Litigation Support Technology Group

www.listgroup.org

I cannot better LĩST's own description of itself as

"a unique UK think tank, formed in 2003 by a group of litigation support specialists with the aim of encouraging and developing uniformity of approach to the use of technology in litigation and alternative dispute resolution."

The Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand

Its members are, for the most part, litigation support managers within the larger law firms. They sit between the lawyers whose role (in this context) is to give and receive Disclosure documents and the suppliers of software and services designed to enable Disclosure. Litigation support managers are an elite cadre in that there are not many of them, their lawyers come from the top of the pile, and the budgets which they control or influence make them beloved of suppliers.

LĩST has the additional luxury of being able to choose its members. An application for membership must be accompanied by "a brief resumé of your relevant experience". Members must be expected to contribute to the discussion. If LĩST has an educational and proselyting role, it is by example and the trickle-down of shared (and informed) experience, not as a mutual assistance forum for aspirants and newbies.

LĩST has four active working groups

Practice Direction for the use of IT in Civil Proceedings
Electronic Data Exchange
Courtroom Presentation
E-disclosure/electronic documents

It is here that the real work is done towards the expressed aim of "encouraging and developing uniformity of approach to the use of technology in litigation". The published results come in the form of draft documents, thrashed out in discussion between group members and refined by public consultation. As one who has contributed to the consultations (and whose views have been accepted and rejected in roughly equal measure), I know how much attention is paid to the minutiae.

LĩST has four draft documents currently available at www.listgroup.org/publications.htm These are:

a draft technology questionnaire
a draft Practice Direction for the use of IT in Civil Proceedings
a two-part draft Data Exchange Protocol, dealing separately with Disclosure Documents and Disclosure Data.

It follows from what I say above that these documents are not drafted for the benefit of the non-expert. Like a statute, their purpose is to codify technical requirements with the least room for ambiguity. They are written in plain English and use the fewest words needed to convey their intent clearly, but they are not, and not intended to be, handbooks for novices, any more than a statute is.

My commentary on LĩSTs' draft documents on the use of technology in litigation aims to explain what the purpose is of these documents and to put them into a practical and commercial context relevant to lawyers and their clients.

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