Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Change to Commercial Division Rules

The Office of Court Administration has asked for public comment on another proposed change to the rules of the Commercial Division.

Generally, the proposal:

seeks to promote more efficient, cost-effective pretrial disclosure by establishing a "preference" in the Commercial Division for the use of "categorical designations" rather than document-by-document logging. The parties would be expected to address privilege log issues as part of the meet and confer process, "and to agree, where possible, to employ a categorical approach to privilege designations." If a party objects to the categorical approach and insists on a document-by-document log, the producing party, "upon a showing of good cause, may apply to the court for the allocation of costs, including attorney's fees incurred." To ensure that a party receiving a categorical privilege log receives comprehensible information, a responsible attorney for the producing party would be required to submit a certification under 22 NYCRR § 130-1.I-a setting forth specific facts supporting the privileged status of the materials in each category. The proposal also would treat uninterrupted email chains as a single document.

E-mail comments to rulecomments@nycourts.gov by June 2, 2014.