Information on BYOD
In our last post (BYOD Could Mean Bring Your Own Disaster to Some Companies), we discussed some of the potential pitfalls of Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) in organizations and three ways to keep BYOD devices from becoming a disaster in your own organization. One of those ways was to implement a formal BYOD policy and here’s a great Commentary from a highly respected source with five terrific principles for addressing BYOD policies and BYOD devices in discovery.
The Sedona Conference Commentary on BYOD
The Sedona Conference® (TSC) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) research and educational institute dedicated to the advanced study of law and policy. TSC has published numerous resources related to technology and discovery on everything from cooperation to guides for judges to proportionality and privilege and so forth. It’s a highly respected organization which has several working groups with experienced industry professionals committing their time to create resources to improve the practice of law.
In 2018, TSC published The Sedona Conference Commentary on BYOD: Principles and Guidance for Developing Policies and Meeting Discovery Obligations. The Commentary is primarily focused on five principles for BYOD. The first two principles are focused on whether an organization should allow or require BYOD devices and how to develop and implement a BYOD program. The last three principles are focused on discovery obligations when it comes to BYOD devices.
Five BYOD Principles
Here are the five BYOD principles, with our comments about each:
Conclusion
TSC’s Commentary on BYOD is an excellent resource for best practices for handling BYOD devices in your organization and how to handle them in discovery. You can access it free here. You should also consider setting up a free account on the TSC website to access the many other useful resources they have published as well!
Addressing BYOD devices in discovery starts before litigation even begins and it’s important to keep in mind how much we use our mobile devices for so many things today when considering those BYOD devices as potential sources of unique, relevant ESI. Don’t wait until it’s too late!