E-Discovery and Public Relations Practice: How Digital Communication Affects Litigation

• Main Author: Cayce Myers
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Insitute for Public Relations 2017-06-01
• Series: Public Relations Journal
• Online Access: https://prjournal.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/CayceMyers-Ediscovery-IPR_Final.pdf

Practicing ethical public relations means keeping client confidences. However, when organizations face litigation this promise can be hard to keep. Having a working knowledge of the litigation process has become extremely important as public relations becomes an increasingly multifaceted practice in organizations that face a variety of issues and crises. One of the most important and relevant legal issues that is likely to affect public relations work is ediscovery. This paper examines e-discovery issues, and how this litigation process potentially affects the public relations profession. An overview of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence are provided along with an in-depth analysis of cost, access, confidentiality, and international issues that affect the e-discovery process. The paper concludes with five issues with discovery law that PR practitioners should know and be prepared to work within during the next decade.