California eDiscovery Legislation Signed Into Law, Effective Immediately

INTRODUCTION

On June 29, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 5, California's first set of statutes designed to address the realities of electronic discovery. AB 5 adds two new statutes to the California Code of Civil Procedure and amends 19 pre-existing CCP sections. The new rules, which largely track current federal provisions, took effect immediately and bring California in line with the growing number of states adopting specific regulations for this critical area of modern civil litigation. Among other mandates, the new statutory scheme:

• subjects electronically stored information (ESI) to discovery automatically;
• changes procedures and processes applicable to discovery requests directed to both parties and non-parties;