Subpoenas

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After reviewing the 2023 discovery statutes, there have been changes to the following statutes:

The most significant change in the 2023 discovery statutes is the repealing of C.C.P. 2016.080 Informal Discovery Conference. See discovery blog titled “If Meet and Confer fails, Ask for Help.”  Also, make sure to check your local rules and determine if your court will still use informal discovery conferences.

C.C.P. §2025.310        Deposition via remote means; Who must appear in person; Procedure

Added the second sentence to paragraph (b) which states: 

If a party or attorney of record elects to be physically present at the location of the deponent, all physically present participants in the deposition shall comply with local health and safety ordinances, rules, and orders.Continue Reading It’s a New Year and there are New Discovery Laws

W. George Wailes, a Business Trial Attorney and Director at Carr McClellan, in Burlingame, CA brings us this warning from the California Court of Appeal about what could happen to a third party that refuses to comply with a subpoena for electronically stored information.

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The California Court of Appeal recently provided rare guidance regarding a third party’s obligations to produce electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a subpoena.  In Vasquez v. California School of Culinary Arts, Inc. (Sallie Mae) (2014) 230 CA4th 35, the court defined subpoenaed parties’ obligations to extract existing data from computer systems and upheld an award of attorneys’ fees against the recalcitrant third party.  The court concluded that it is unreasonable for a third party to withhold ESI that exists in its computer systems on the basis that outputting the ESI entails creating a “new” spreadsheet.

Continue Reading A Third-Party Can Expect Sanctions for Ignoring a Subpoena for Electronically Stored Information