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About

In Pursuit of Relevance is the leading e-litigation blog for the Asia-Pacific. Coverage is focused on thoughts, changes and case law about e-discovery, e-trials, electronic evidence, computer forensics, privacy/data protection, freedom of information (FOI), intellectual property and information security.

Seamus E. Byrne is an Australian Information Lawyer and Computer Forensics Expert with extensive e-discovery and electronic evidence experience.

If you'd like to sponsor or contribute to In Pursuit of Relevance, please contact Seamus.

Thursday
Mar282013

Changes to Google's AdWords trademark policy - More work for Australian IP lawyers?

Google's upcoming revisions to its Australian AdWords trademark policy have received attention for their anticipated implications to the Australian e-commerce industry...

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Mar272013

Free PDF - DLA Piper's Data Protection Laws of the World Handbook: Second Edition

There's been significant coverage on upcoming reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) that will commence in March 2014.

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Nov222011

FOI - Understanding Your Search Obligations

Recent reforms to freedom of information (FOI) law in Australia have received significant media attention for their intent to improve public access to information. However, FOI is also readily used by parties involved in civil litigation as an alternative to making an application for a government agency to give discovery, either as a party or non-party, to the proceeding.

Click to read more ...

Friday
Jun102011

Media Report - Mapping the new era of discovery

"In its excellent report entitled Managing Discovery of Documents in Federal Courts, the Australian Law Reform Commission rightly focuses on the need for the robust judicial management of the discovery process."

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
May182011

E-Discovery and Non-English Electronically Stored Information (ESI)

Many e-discovery vendors promote Unicode as the solution to being able to process, analyse and review non-English text. However, as at January 2010, Google estimated that Unicode-encoded text accounted for fewer than 50 per cent of all web-based text that it had indexed.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
May152011

National Archives of Australia Training – E-Discovery and the Law – What is the Record?

For In Pursuit of Relevance readers in Canberra, I'm pleased to announce that I'll be presenting at the National Archives of Australia (NAA) on Tuesday, 31 May 2011.

Please click here for further information and to register. I look forward to meeting you!

Sunday
May082011

HP TUF 24 - Understanding E-Discovery and FOI for Australian Information Professionals

On 8-9 March 2011, I was pleased to present a workshop on the topic of Understanding E-Discovery and FOI for Australian Information Professionals at HP TRIM User Forum 24 (TUF 24). Held at the Hotel Realm, Canberra, TUF 24 was well attended by HP representatives, exhibiting vendors and Australia's eminent information professionals.

My workshop was delivered in three parts:

  • Electronic Evidence
  • E-Discovery, featuring the top five Australian e-discovery decisions of 2010
  • Freedom of Information (FOI), featuring recent reforms and "adequacy of search" decisions

The presentation in Portable Document Format (PDF).

Thanks to Kris Brown for the photo.

Sunday
Sep052010

Betfair v Racing New South Wales [2010] FCA 603 (16 June 2010)

"The financial records in question come from two sources. One is an electronic data warehouse containing the electronic records of over 2.52 million customers and occupying some 21 terabytes of memory growing at 70 gigabytes per day. The second is Betfair's accounting system which consists of files generated from the warehouse each day."

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Sep022010

Hepburn v Teplitzky (No 2) [2010] FCA 802 (29 July 2010)

The recent decision of Justice Siopis in the Federal Court of Australia related to ongoing litigation between two former employees of Hydrocool, who made an application of contempt of court against the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hydrocool. The decision confirms well-established precedent that a party to a proceeding for contempt of court will not be ordered to give discovery in that proceeding, even of a computer hard drive.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Aug302010

Automotive Dealer Administration Services v Kulik & Ors [2010] VSC 293 (25 June 2010)

The recent decision of Associate Justice Mukhtar in the Supreme Court of Victoria (Commercial and Equity Division) related to ongoing litigation between a motor vehicle warranty claim company, Automotive Dealer Administration Services, and Kulik, a former director of the company. The decision highlights the complexity of dealing with databases as part of discovery.

Click to read more ...