New EU-US Privacy Shield

On February 2, 2016, the European Commission announced that it had reached an agreement in principle with the United States on a new framework for data transfers.

 

This new EU-US Privacy Shield is necessary because of the October 2015 Court of Justice of the European Union decision which invalidated the Safe Harbour arrangement (discussed in further depth in this previous article).

 

On February 29, 2016, the European Commission released a draft “adequacy decision” and the legal text for the new agreement. The adequacy decision establishes that the safeguards under the Privacy Shield will offer equivalent data protection standards to those in place in the EU.… Read More

Privilege Risks and Electronic Discovery

On December 2, 2015, Chief Justice Rossiter of the Tax Court of Canada ruled on the Crown’s motion in CIBC v. The Queen[1] regarding, among other things, CIBC’s privilege claims and the adequacy of CIBC’s Schedule B with respect to electronic data.

 

The Crown’s motion related to CIBC’s appeal relating to its claim to deduct $3 billion in settlement payments, interest on the payments, and related legal expenses from its business income for the 2005 and 2006 taxation years. The Minister of National Revenue denied the deductions. From an eDiscovery perspective, there are two interesting issues from the ruling, one of which may impact professional liability insurance for privilege errors.… Read More

A Northern Safe Harbour

Last week, EDRM hosted a webinar on “Practical Options for US Litigators and Investigators Dealing with EU Data” featuring Dominic Jaar, KPMG, and Jo Sherman, EDT, regarding the October 2015 Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decision Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland. [1]  

 

This now infamous decision invalidates the Safe Harbour framework for data transfer from the EU to the US because it does not provide adequate protection for personal information. As a result of the CJEU decision, any transfer of personal data from the EU to the US that exclusively relies on the Safe Habour framework is now unlawful.… Read More

Updated Sedona Canada Principles

Recently, the Sedona Conference® published the second edition of the Sedona Canada Principles Addressing Electronic Discovery[1] (the “Principles”).

 

The Principles provide guidance on best practices for dealing with electronically stored information (ESI) with respect to parties’ discovery obligations. The original version of the Principles, published in January 2008, are referenced in the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure requiring parties to consult and have regard to the Principles in preparing their discovery plan.[2] Crystal O’Donnell, the founder of Heuristica Discovery Counsel is a contributing editor to the second edition.

 

There are a number of updates to the Principles and commentary, including an emphasis on the overarching principles of early and meaningful cooperation between counsel (Principle 4) and proportionality (Principle 2).… Read More