In its continuing efforts to ease the financial burdens of litigants, the Ad Hoc Committee for Electronic Discovery of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware recently amended the court’s Default Standard for Discovery (the Standard). This revision continues a recent trend on the part of the federal courts, which have attempted to lower the costs associated with e-discovery by offering guidelines designed to streamline the process. Some examples of this trend include the following:

• In September 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit unveiled a Model Order for E-Discovery in Patent Cases designed to reduce discovery costs.
• In November 2011, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York implemented Standing Order M10-468, In re: Pilot Project Regarding Case Management Techniques for Complex Civil Cases in the Southern District of New York, which details the court’s expectations regarding e-discovery...

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