Ride the Lightning

YOU WANT THE TRUTH? YOU CAN’T AFFORD THE TRUTH!

November 16, 2007

Judge Thomas Vanaskie, Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, is obviously a fan of A Few Good Men. The audience at a CLE laughed several days ago as he reengineered the infamous words of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup (memorably played by Jack Nicholson) to adroitly describe the situation in the e-evidence world where the costs of electronic discovery can be so extensive that parties frequently find that they can’t pony up the funds to get to the truth given the amount in controversy.

We’ve had the pleasure of lecturing with Judge Vanaskie several times, and he is a font of practical advice. He frequently draws on the experiences of his colleagues as well and offers some collective wisdom and great stories from the bench. One striking tip he tendered for other judges: he said that he tries to avoid electronic discovery controversies by requiring the parties to schedule a telephone conference with him before they file a discovery motion. This, he points out with some satisfaction, seems to have resulted in a dearth of discovery controversies in his court. Perhaps coincidental, perhaps not, but it sure seems like a good idea.

E-mail:   Phone: 703-359-0700