Haynes and Boone's Newsroom
Civil Subpoenas & Electronic Communications
10/01/2008
Chip Brooker
Electronic communications often make or break high-stakes civil litigation. For years, civil litigators have focused on e-mails to prove claims ranging from defamation to misappropriation of trade secrets. As electronic communications have become more efficient, prevalent and amorphous - ranging from text and instant messages to blogs and FaceBook pages - civil litigators have adapted.
The result is a significant increase in the number of civil subpoenas served on non-party Internet service providers seekeing relevant and admissible electronic communications. With the number of civil subpoenas continually rising, however, ISPs and their subscribers are challenging civil subpoenas, with some success, under the Stored Communications Act.
From Dallas Bar Association, Headnotes, October 1, 2008.
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