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Authors

Michael Yager

Abstract

Early in the twentieth century, the phenomenon that is the “quantum” stormed the fortress of classical physics, causing Albert Einstein, one of science's greatest thinkers, to opine, “[i]t was as if the ground had been pulled out from under one, with no firm foundation to be seen anywhere, upon which one could have built.” The theoretical laws associated with looking at reality on the quantum level violently collided with those related to looking at the same reality on the macro level. The application of quantum theory to the mathematically pure and proven classical laws of physics introduced a cultural clash in the world of theoretical physics, which caused many physicists to doubt their very sanity. This Article argues that developments in the law related to the phenomenon of “e-discovery” have been no less shattering to those practitioners in the classical practice of law than the introduction of quantum theory in physics. The introduction of “electronically stored information” or “ESI” using the procedural rules designed to govern the classical practice of law created an identifiable shift in jurisprudence related to e-discovery. Indeed, the introduction of this category of discoverable information caused a cultural explosion within a segment of the legal profession not seen in any other profession since those great thinkers of physics nearly a century ago.

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