American Bar Association

The discovery revolution; e-discovery amendments to the Federal rules of civil procedure.

The E-Discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure made changes to discovery rules to make it easier for courts and litigating parties to manage electronic records and became effective in December 2006. Paul (a partner in the Business Litigation Section of Lewis and Roca LLP) and Nearon (director of the IT Security Auditing practice of J.H. Cohn LLP) offer guidance on these new rules in chapters that address preservation of evidence and sanctions for spoliation, changes connected to the Rule 26(f) conference, issues regarding form of production, the issue of accessibility, evolving case law on cost shifting and regulations regarding accessibility, the new retrieval procedure, and the new safe harbor provision. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Guide to HIPAA security and the law.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 has substantially standardized and changed how institutions and individual practitioners create, store, manage, transmit and disclose health information in the US. It most closely considers the privacy and security of certain health information. These nine essays on regulations and practices include guidance on setting up and implementing the standards set by the HIPAA and conducting procedures worldwide. Topics include the background and history of the HIPAA, the scope and applicability of the security rules, administrative safeguards under the security rules, including risks, responsibilities, access, training and evaluation, physical and technical safeguards, documentation procedures, implementation and determination of the state of compliance, enforcement in terms of criminal and civil violations, including final rules for the imposition of civil money penalties, liability and litigation. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The practitioner's guide to biometrics.

In theory, biometrics is the measurement of any characteristic of an organism that can be quantified, but since the inauguration of The Global War On Terror, it usually refers to a system of identifying people using fingerprints or eye scans. Lawyers and other contributors explore some of the legal implications of its increasing use. Their topics include rethinking data protection regimes to enable global tracking and prosecution of terrorists, national identification cards, theft of biometric data, trends and case studies in the private sector, and unintended consequences. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Standards development patent policy manual. (CD-ROM included)

A committee of the Association prepared the manual on for organizations that develop standards, for lawyers who advise them, and for other participants involved in the process of developing standards, on how to handle the interplay between a standard and patents that ostensible are needed to implement it. It offers annotated, policy-neutral language that can be used by organizations that are developing new patent policies or refining or interpreting existing ones. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)