Which party is responsible for paying the cost of forensic analysis and electronic discovery?
Federal and state procedural rules pertaining to discovery clearly extend to electronic information and evidence stored in digital form on computer systems and technology devices. Regarding cost allocation, the US Supreme Court has stated “the presumption is that the responding party must bear the expense of complying with discovery requests, but [the responding party] may invoke the district court’s discretion under Rule 26(c) to grant orders protecting him from ‘undue burden or expense’ in doing so, including orders conditioning discovery on the requesting party’s payment of the costs of discovery.” However, discovery costs may still be shifted and allocated to the requesting party.
