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Atlanta partner on American College of Trial Lawyers, e-discovery
Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
April 2010
Litigation section chief and Atlanta partner Bill Withrow was interviewed by Metropolitan Corporate Counsel for an article it published in April titled “E-Discovery: Your Data Can Forward Reform.”
Withrow, who is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) and is a member of its Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice, answered interview questions that focused on the approach set forth in the Final Report of the Joint Project of the ACTL and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) and in the IAALS’s Pilot Project Rules on e-discovery issues.
When asked to give insight into the thinking of the ACTL Task Force’s view on why, when e-discovery is threatened, do the cases involved settle to avoid the cost of discovery, Withrow responded:
“This situation certainly was a major impetus for the formation of the Task Force and the development of the IAALS's and ACTL's principles. Everybody who is involved in litigation today understands that in many cases, the cost of discovery, including e-discovery, becomes disproportionate to the size of the controversy. Litigants often do a cost-benefit analysis to determine the wisdom of proceeding with litigation. The result is that a lot of meritorious cases do not get brought, and many disputes that deserve to be tried are settled. Overall, there is mounting frustration with the efficiency of our system of civil justice.”