Articles in this Series

LĩST - the Litigation Support Technology Group

What is LĩST?

The LĩST Draft Documents

The LĩST draft Practice Direction

The LĩST Data Exchange Protocol

Disclosure Documents
Disclosure Data

Why a Data Exchange Protocol?

LĩST Publications

Some LĩST definitions

Document
Anything in which information of any description is recorded as defined in CPR Part 31.

Disclosure Documents
Documents disclosed by a party in accordance with CPR Part 31

Disclosure Data
Electronic data which identifies Disclosure Documents, including for example the type of Document, the date of the Document, the names of the author/sender and the recipient, and the party disclosing the Document.

Litigation Support and Electronic Disclosure

LĩST Data Exchange Protocol Part 1 of 2 Disclosure Documents

LĩST Data Exchange Protocol Part 2 of 2 Disclosure Data

LiST's Data Exchange Protocol appears as two documents, Part 1 about Disclosure Documents and Part 2 on Disclosure Data. They are on the LiST web site:

LĩST Data Exchange Protocol Part 1 of 2 - Disclosure Documents

LĩST Data Exchange Protocol Part 2 of 2 - Disclosure Data

If you are confused by the double use of the word "Data" in these headings, by the difference between the Practice Direction and the Protocol, or as to what if anything any of this has to do with e-filing, you may care to read my note Grounds for Confusion

The Data Exchange Protocol seeks to simplify exchange by establishing a common standard and some rules, and to do so separately for the documents themselves ("the Disclosure Documents") and for the information about documents ("the Disclosure Data"). The broad range of forms which a "document" can take warrants detailed attention to the electronic files. The need for Disclosure Data to be exchangeable (and thence indexable and searchable) requires a precise form, not merely for the data as a whole but for the contents of each field in it. The latter point is explained in the "Roderick Ramsbottom" example in the article Why is a Data Exchange Protocol necessary?

The two parts of Data Exchange Protocol kick off with a set of clear recitals - what the Protocol does, what it does not do and why it is necessary. These include a statement as to the target audience:

"This Protocol is aimed primarily at those who are using some form of litigation support system to manage their case. Specifically, it will be of benefit to internal specialists or external service providers who have responsibility for processing and managing electronic disclosure. Although drafted in relatively simple terms, this Protocol assumes that the reader has a level of technical knowledge sufficient for undertaking electronic disclosure".

It does not, therefore, aim to guide or inform the non-expert. This has to be the right approach. LĩST is a think-tank, a group of experts thrashing out some conventions which will allow their lawyers to exchange Disclosure data. They have a wider purpose, no doubt, and hope that the end-product of their work will become a standard, but their starting-point is what will work for them.

That does not make their output irrelevant to others not in the club. One of the recurring themes in this site is that you do not need full-time staff and a site licence for some expensive software to exchange data. The Data Exchange Protocol includes some general principles which benefit anyone with a big case to run.

Future articles on this site will expand on this point. The purpose of this page is to summarise what the Data Exchange Protocol does. You may care first to read Why is a Data Exchange Protocol needed?

Contact me if anything covered in this section is relevant to what YOU want to achieve NOW.

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