What Ontario Courts are Saying about Redaction of Confidential or Sensitive Information

Catia Amorim

Associate

July 13, 2021

The Superior Court of Justice recently reiterated the test to be met when it comes to redaction of otherwise relevant documents.

In Marsella v. BDBC, 2021 ONSC 3276, a wrongful dismissal case, the plaintiff sought production of unredacted copies of certain documents in the defendant’s Schedule A. The documents at issue were created during an internal investigation which led to the plaintiff’s dismissal and contained the names of non-parties to the litigation.

Arguing for disclosure, the plaintiff posited that there was no evidence to show that the redacted information was sufficiently confidential or sensitive in nature that disclosure would result in “significant harm or prejudice” to BDBC or any non-parties. … Read More

eDiscovery Preparedness – Document Management Systems

Candice Chan-Glasgow, Director, Review Services and Counsel

June 8, 2021

An initial step for any business entity looking to proactively manage costs through the eDiscovery process is to re-examine its document management system (DMS).

A DMS is a system used to store, manage, and track electronic documents. The general benefits of an effective DMS have been touted for years – a DMS offers enhanced security and employees spend less time searching for information while losing less time to versioning issues. While these are all important considerations, a crucial perspective that is often overlooked is the eDiscovery aspect.… Read More

Federal Government Redaction Blunder Makes Headlines

Candice Chan-Glasgow, Director, Review Services and Counsel

March 15, 2021

A recent CBC news article highlights the Federal Government’s failure to properly redact sensitive information. This follows some high profile redaction failures south of the border, most notably when Paul Manafort’s lawyers failed to properly redact sensitive and damaging information in documents filed with the Federal Court.

Proper redaction tools and workflows should be used to ensure privileged or sensitive information is appropriately redacted. As a gentle reminder, The Federation of Law Societies of Canada amended its Model Code of Professional Conduct in October 2019 to include commentary on technological competence:

[4A] To maintain the required level of competence, a lawyer should develop an understanding of, and ability to use, technology relevant to the nature and area of the lawyer’s practice and responsibilities. … Read More

Voted again as Leaders in Document Review

For the third year in a row Heuristica has been selected by the readers of Canadian Lawyer magazine as a leader in Legal Process Outsourcing and Managed Document Review.

Canadian Lawyer recently announced the winners of the 6th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards which are designed to give a voice to their readers to identify which service providers are the best at what they do and prevailed among their competitors.

Brian Pel, the firm’s COO and Senior Counsel, said he is “grateful to both the firm’s legal and technical teams for constantly pushing the envelope to find better and faster ways of serving our clients in their eDiscovery projects. … Read More

U.S. Court Shifts eDiscovery Costs to Plaintiff

Candice Chan-Glasgow, Director, Review Services and Counsel

August 28, 2020

In a rare cost shifting order out of the United States, Lawson v. Spirit Aerosystems (D. Kan. June 18, 2020), the Kansas District Court granted defendant, Spirit Aerosystems, Inc’s motion to shift the costs of a technology-assisted review to the plaintiff, Larry A. Lawson. This case is a helpful reminder to litigants that the eDiscovery process must be proportionate to the needs of the case and that pursuing unnecessarily broad requests can lead to cost consequences.

Lawson is Spirit’s former CEO who retired on July 31, 2016. … Read More