The Office of Court Administration has asked for public comment on another proposed change to the rules of the Commercial Division.

Generally, the proposal:

seeks to promote more efficient, cost-effective pretrial disclosure by establishing a “preference” in the Commercial Division for the use of “categorical designations” rather than document-by-document logging. The parties would be expected to address privilege log issues as part of the meet and confer process, “and to agree, where possible, to employ a categorical approach to privilege designations.” If a party objects to the categorical approach and insists on a document-by-document log, the producing party, “upon a showing of good cause, may apply to the court for the allocation of costs, including attorney’s fees incurred.” To ensure that a party receiving a categorical privilege log receives comprehensible information, a responsible attorney for the producing party would be required to submit a certification under 22 NYCRR § 130-1.I-a setting forth specific facts supporting the privileged status of the materials in each category. The proposal also would treat uninterrupted email chains as a single document.

E-mail comments to rulecomments@nycourts.gov by June 2, 2014.