Although the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure set the stage for
electronic discovery in civil cases, there is no such express
regime in the criminal context.
The absence of such a standard became evident in a recent case
in the Western District of New York. In United States v. Briggs,
2011 WL 4017886 (W.D.N.Y. Sept. 8, 2011), defendants were charged
with several counts related to the distribution of cocaine. The
criminal investigation leading to these charges involved
court-authorized interceptions of cellular telephone communications
indicating that the defendants were allegedly engaged in drug
trafficking.
In its voluntary discovery, the Government furnished defense
counsel with disks containing thousands of pages of documents
relating to these communications using the IPRO program routinely
used by the U.S. Attorney's Office in cases involving multiple
defendants. Defendants claimed this reported data had problems with
omissions and inaccuracies resulting from
