LGN partner Kristen Marttila will participate as a dialogue leader for The Sedona Conference Working Group 1 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis on October 27, 2023. Kristen currently served as a member of Working Group 1’s brainstorming group on the sufficiency of Rule 26(a)(1) initial disclosures, and will present the brainstorming group’s report on their findings. 

Rule 26(a)(1) initial disclosures can be extremely useful early in discovery if they are complete and correct. But what does Rule 26(g)’s “complete and correct” requirement mean in the context of initial disclosures? This panel will discuss the Initial Disclosures brainstorming group’s preliminary thoughts, and elicit membership feedback, on whether to form a drafting team for a Sedona Conference publication that addresses whether parties are currently living up to the original intent of the Rule and meeting their obligations to make a reasonable inquiry into the facts in preparing the disclosures; whether, as part of a party’s initial disclosures, they should be identifying custodians and custodial and noncustodial data sources containing potentially relevant ESI; and whether the timing for initial disclosures under Rule 26(a)(1)(C) is workable for the parties to provide sufficient disclosures.