• The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have rules specific to electronic files.gavel image by Cora Reed from Fotolia.com
  
  The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) address the issue of electronic files in the discovery process of litigation. The rules balance the interests of the parties requesting the information with the burden producing the information places on the opposing side. The rules also address issues arising from unintentional disclosure, which may occur more often due to the volume of information produced through electronic files.
  
  

Undue Burden

• Rule 26(b)(2)(B) protects litigants from having to provide excessive or expensive electronic media in discovery requests. If the information is not easily accessible or producing it will create an undue burden or cost, the court may permit the party to be excused from providing the information. The requesting party must show a compelling reason in such a scenario for the court to order the other party to produce the requested electronic files.
  
  

Involuntary Disclosure

• When large volumes of electronic information are produced, parties may inadvertently produce information that is protected as privileged information. Under Rule 26(b)(5)(B) the party producing the discovery must contact the opposing party to inform counsel that information was inadvertently disclosed. The notified party must destroy, return or sequester the privileged information. The party is also prohibited from using the information in the case.
  
  

Business Record

• In an answer to interrogatories, a party may permit the requesting party to review the documents, including electronic documents, if the volume of documents makes it unduly burdensome to produce. The answering party can let the other party know that the information is available to review, make copies, compilations, abstracts or summaries. Rule 33(d) also permits the producing party itself to provide a summary or abstract.
  
  

Format

• Under Rule 34(b)(2)(E) the producing party must produce the electronic files in the format that it is normally kept in or in a reasonably usable format. The party does not have to produce the file in multiple formats.
  
  

Lost Files

• Rule 37(e) provides that the court may not impose sanctions on a party for failing to produce files lost as a result of routine, good-faith operation of electronic file storage.
  
  

Nonparties

• Rule 45(d) requires nonparties who are subpoenaed and requested to provide information to meet the same requirements as the parties to the case. Nonparties are protected from undue burden in producing electronic files and requiring the files to be in the format they are normally kept in.