The National Litigation Support Team (NLST) is pleased to announce that IPRO / Reveal Data has agreed to provide a discounted rate for CJA panel attorneys to purchase a subscription license of Trial Director.
Trial Director is a courtroom presentation tool that allows users the ability to present documents, pictures and videos in hearings and trials. Users can prepare exhibits in advance, or instantly display exhibits to jurors and judges. Additionally, attorneys can direct jurors’ attention to the most important parts of exhibits by doing call-outs, zoom-ins, mark-ups, highlights, and side-by-side comparisons of documents. During the examination of a witness, it is easy to do a screen capture of information that has been displayed to the jury for later use in the trial, and the software works well when used along with PowerPoint. Trial Director has been successfully used for many years by FDOs and CJA panel attorneys representing clients and has been a staple of the Law and Technology workshop training series for close to 20 years.
We recently spoke to a well-respected CJA panel attorney, and he mentioned he had a discovery coordinator on a multidefendant case. He did not understand how discovery coordinators were either assigned or appointed in federal CJA cases, or what his expectations should be for what the discovery coordinator could do to assist him or his fellow CJA panel counsel. After talking with him, we thought it would help to have a blog post on the current state of discovery coordination in federal criminal cases.
Hundreds of multidefendant criminal prosecutions are occurring in federal courts throughout the United States. As federal criminal defense lawyers know well, these cases frequently involve complex forms and large amount of e-discovery. Complicating matters for many individual clients in multidefendant cases is that much of the discovery produced is not relevant to them. Even so, the defense team still needs to organize and manage the discovery. It can be laborious, overwhelming and time consuming for individual defense teams to organize the discovery on their own.
To help address this issue, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts Committee on Defender Services approved the use of national Coordinating Discovery Attorneys (CDAs) to assist with discovery coordination between the government and the defense team, and to manage the discovery for all court appointed defense attorneys in multidefendant cases. Having a CDA serve as a single point of contact for distribution of discovery, managing the discovery and coordinating the vendor relationships necessary in complex cases can be an advantage to all involved. For the courts, who are in part overseeing CJA expenditures in a case, they are understandably interested in ways to lower costs by avoiding defense teams having to duplicate basic organization and management of discovery[1]. For defense counsel, who are concentrating on the needs and interests of their particular client, and who are focusing on case strategy, a CDA can assist with uploading, centralizing, and overseeing organization of voluminous discovery. For prosecutors, having a single source of distribution of discovery for all clients makes production of discovery more efficient. They can discuss form of production with one or two knowledgeable counsel as opposed to dozens of attorneys who may have varying experience and knowledge with technology and e-discovery.
However, not all discovery coordination is the same. Districts have implemented discovery coordination in a number of ways. Historically, there have been four principal types of discovery coordinators in federal criminal cases: National Coordinating Discovery Attorneys; Local Coordinating Discovery Attorney; Joint Paralegals or Investigators; and, Litigation Support Vendors.
This blog post describes four types of discovery coordination and explains the strengths and limitations of each one from the perspective of CJA panel counsel.
National Coordinating Discovery Attorneys
National Coordinating Discovery Attorneys (CDAs) are federal criminal defense attorneys who have experience working on CJA cases. The national CDAs have been appointed by federal district judges in numerous multidefendant cases in some of the most complex litigation in the United States. Since they are appointed by district courts, they have standing to communicate directly with the government. They are experienced in participating in Rule 16.1 “meet and confers” with the prosecution. These meetings can result in CJA panel attorneys obtaining discovery from the government in more useful formats, setting deadlines for rolling productions, getting volume estimates for planning purposes, and assisting the defense teams in setting dates for events that rely upon productions (e.g. pretrial motions, motions in limine, preliminary list of exhibits and witnesses, and trial dates). CDAs provide status reports to the court regarding the status of discovery productions which can assist defense counsel with preparing their case as the court will have a third party source to notify it regarding problems and challenges with discovery production (which can result in more time or more resources to assist defense counsel in the case).
The national CDAs are managed by the National Litigation Support Team (NLST), which provides a support network for guidance on pressing technology challenges. This national support network assists the CDAs develop innovative and practical solutions focused on the needs of CJA cases. Accordingly, CDAs are knowledgeable about the types of software programs available to assist in the management of discovery and know how to effectively use technology and litigation support vendors to assist with the organization, search, review and analysis of large volumes of electronically stored information (ESI).
CDAs have project management and technical support staff proficient in industry standard technology used to organize and review discovery. Additionally, CDAs’ staff provide training and technical support to all legal teams and can assist in executing the strategies that the CDA recommends in categorizing and searching the data received. CDAs monitor the marketplace and are experienced in vetting litigation support and e-discovery vendors to make certain that vendors provide quality services at the best possible rates. They are experienced in preparing funds requests to the court for third party assistance which they can do on behalf of CJA panel attorneys. Finally, CDAs are contracted with Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, Defender Services Office, so panel counsel need not prepare funds requests to the courts for their assistance.
Though CDAs have been appointed in cases in half of the federal districts in the country, they may not have experience in your jurisdiction. Due to their workload, they are only assigned to a limited number of cases. Also, they cannot do subjective analysis of the discovery for your particular client. For example, they will not tell defense counsel “here are all the files that relate to your client.” You will still need to develop a theory of defense, and use the tools provided to search, review and prepare the defense case (but that is what you are trained to do).
Currently, CDAs provide experience, technical proficiency, dedicated staff and accountability with experience in more than 45 federal district courts.
Local Coordinating Discovery Attorneys
In several jurisdictions, districts have appointed coordinating discovery attorneys on cases. Typically, they are attorneys that the court, or those who manage the CJA panel in that jurisdiction, have identified as having e-discovery experience in criminal cases. Since they are working in their own jurisdictions, these local CDAs know the practices and the types of government discovery productions which can help them when working with CJA panel attorneys. However, they have limited experience performing discovery coordination. The local CDAs do not have experienced staff such as project managers or technical support personnel who are knowledgeable and skilled with litigation support technology to help. Due to their limited assignments to complex cases (there have only been a handful of local CDAs appointed to multidefendant cases), they are limited in their experience in vetting litigation support and e-discovery vendors, and they do not have the breadth of experience training on various technology solutions similar to the national CDAs.
Joint Paralegals or Investigators
Joint paralegals have provided discovery coordination in a number of cases. Typically, this assistance has been done informally, where the paralegal has been officially appointed to assist one attorney representing a single defendant, but with the understanding that they may assist all of the defense teams with basic organization of discovery. The advantages of joint paralegals are that they often have significant experience working with and managing discovery in their own cases, and they are familiar with litigation support technology.
Though having a joint paralegal (or investigator) provide basic organization for multiple defense teams can work, there are issues to consider upfront to improve success for everyone. One question to clarify at the inception is how they are appointed to work in the case. Typically, even if there is an understanding that a joint paralegal’s work may be used to assist multiple defense teams, practically they will be appointed to assist a single client. Defense teams need to address what work is to be done, define what specific output they expect the paralegal to provide (e.g. level of detail in joint indices, what objective information is to coded, whether they will be producing spreadsheets or word indices, etc.), and prioritization of the work. Both the attorney who is responsible for the joint paralegal (under the Professional Rule of Responsibility 5.3), and the joint paralegal need to be clear about their roles between themselves and the rest of the defense teams and be aware of potential ethical considerations that may arise. As one example, an attorney for a different client may ask the joint paralegal to do subjective analysis specific to their client, but this request could reveal case strategy that the attorney may not want to share with defense counsel representing other clients.
Joint paralegals will be limited in communicating with the government. They are not in a position to receive the discovery directly from the government, nor are they in a position to lead a Rule 16.1 conference (though they certainly can assist counsel during that meeting or process). Joint paralegals rarely have staff to assist them. They will have limited experience compared to CDAs regarding various technology challenges that may be present in a case, limited exposure to litigation support technology outside of what they have been able to use with defense counsel they have worked with, and likely have limited experience in vetting litigation support and e-discovery vendors. Finally, they will have limited or no experienced in preparing funds requests to the court for third party assistance.
Third Party Vendors
There are several vendors who have worked on CJA cases, and who have played an important role in discovery coordination in multidefendant cases. Among other things, they have served as a clearing house for discovery productions and pushing out discovery to various defense teams and providing discovery tools such as spreadsheets or online databases for use in cases. In the right situation, a good litigation support or e-discovery vendor can bring industry standard technology, security and experience along with their services. They frequently have staff who can assist in the project, so they can scale up or down depending on the size of the case.
However, most vendors do not have significant experience working on CJA cases. Most litigation support and e-discovery vendors are focused on civil litigation (especially since it is challenging to be a viable business subsisting only on CJA cases).
Similar to joint paralegals, they will not be appointed to the case, but rather appointed to assist one of the defense teams, even if it is on behalf of the other defense teams. They, and the attorney who filed the funds request for their assistance from the court, must be mindful of the ethical issues that can arise as their appointment may likely to be specific to one attorney and client.
Vendors cannot communicate with the government on format of production or issues with data provided. They will not have experience participating in Rule 16.1 “meet and confers” with the government. Though they are experienced with litigation support technology, they may default to their own solutions, even if it is a poor fit for the needs of the case. They will not be experienced vetting litigation support and e-discovery vendors to make certain that vendors provide quality services at the best possible rates, nor will they be able to prepare funds for third party assistance.
Conclusion
Whatever your situation, be it a single or multidefendant case, the NLST is available to consult with appointed counsel when considering how best to manage and organize discovery in your case.
[Editor’s Note: Sean Broderick is the National Litigation Support Administrator. He provides guidance and recommendations to federal courts, federal defender organization staff, and court appointed attorneys on electronic discovery and complex cases, particularly in the areas of evidence organization, document management and trial presentation. Sean is also the co-chair of the Joint Working Group on Electronic Technology in the Criminal Justice System (JETWG), a joint Department of Justice and Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts national working group which examines the use of electronic technology in the federal criminal justice system and suggested practices for the efficient and cost-effective management of post-indictment electronic discovery.
John C. Ellis, Jr. is a National Coordinating Discovery Attorney for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Defender Services Office. In this capacity, he provides litigation support and e-discovery assistance on complex criminal cases to defense teams around the country. Before entering private practice, Mr. Ellis spent 13 years as a trial attorney and supervisory attorney with Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. He also serves as a digital forensic consultant and expert.]
Most federal criminal cases involve discovery that originally came from a cell phone. CJA panel attorneys and Federal Defenders have now become accustomed to receiving “reports” generated from Cellebrite.[1] In this blog post, we will talk about the valuable information that may be contained in those Cellebrite generated reports and what form of production you can get the reports in. Spoiler alert: we suggest you request that you receive those reports in Cellebrite Reader format and not just default to the PDF format that you know and love.
We are going to cover:
the basic concepts behind the forensic process that law enforcement uses when using Cellebrite UFED to extract information from a phone,
what is a Cellebrite generated mobile forensic report (which Cellebrite calls extraction reports), and
the pros and cons for the potential formats you can receive Cellebrite generated reports in.
Though there are a number of forensic tools that law enforcement may use to extract data from a phone, the most common is Cellebrite. We are going to discuss Cellebrite, but know there are others (e.g. Oxygen, Paraben, etc.). Many of the processes and principles that apply to Cellebrite will apply to other tools.
[Editor’s Note: John C. Ellis, Jr. is a National Coordinating Discovery Attorney for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Defender Services Office. In this capacity, he provides litigation support and e-discovery assistance on complex criminal cases to defense teams around the country. Before entering private practice, Mr. Ellis spent 13 years as a trial attorney and supervisory attorney with Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. He also serves as a digital forensic consultant and expert.]
Ephemeral Messaging Apps are a popular form of communication. With privacy a concern for everyone, using a self-destructing message that works like disappearing ink for text and photos has a certain allure. All messages are purposely short-lived, with the message deleting on the receiver’s device, the sender’s device, and on the system’s servers seconds or minutes after the message is read. Although these apps were initially only used by teenagers, they are now a ubiquitous part of corporate culture.
According to the 6th Annual Federal Judges Survey, put together by Exterro, Georgetown Law CLE, and EDRM, 20 Federal Judges were asked “[w]hat new data type should legal teams be most worried about in the 5 years?”[1] The overwhelming response was “Ephemeral Apps (Snapchat, Instagram, etc.).” Id. In fact, 68% of those surveyed believed ephemeral messaging apps where the most worrisome new data type, whereas only 16% responded that biometric data (including facial recognition and fingerprinting) were the greatest risk. Only 5% were concerned with Text Messages and Mobile, and 0% were concerned with the traditional social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Id.
Even now, Courts are attempting to sort out the evidentiary issues cause by ephemeral messaging apps, see e.g., Waymo LLC v. Uber Technologies, Inc.17cv0939-WHA (NDCA). This article discusses popular ephemeral messaging apps and discusses guidelines for addressing potential evidentiary issues.
Short technical background:
There are several background definitions relevant to this discussion:
Text Messages – otherwise known as SMS (“Short Message Service”) messages, text messages allow mobile device users to send and receive messages of up to 160 characters. These messages are sent using the mobile phone carriers’ network. Twenty-three billion text messages are sent worldwide each day. Generally, mobile carriers do not retain the contents of SMS messages, so the records will only show the phone number that sent or received the messages and the time it was sent or received.
Messaging Apps – allow users to send messages not tethered to a mobile device (e., a phone number). With some apps, a user may send messages from multiple devices. These apps include iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Messaging Apps are generally free. Unlike text messages, these apps rarely have monthly billing records or records showing when messages were sent or received.
Ephemeral Messaging Apps – are a subset of Messaging Apps that allow users to cause messages (words or media) to disappear on the recipient’s device after a short duration. The duration of the message’s existence is set by the sender. Messages can last for seconds or days, unless the receiver of the message takes a “screenshot” of the message before its disappearance.
End-to-End Encryption – also known as E2EE, this is a type of encryption where only the communicating parties can decipher the messages, which prevents eavesdroppers from reading them in transit.
Common Disappearing Messaging Apps:
Messaging apps, like all apps, are changing. The following is a list and description of several popular ephemeral messaging apps.
Snapchat – both a messaging platform and a social network. The app allows users to send messages and media (including words and emojis appearing on the media) that disappear after a set period of time. Photos and videos created on Snapchat are called “snaps.” Approximately 1 million snaps are sent per day.
Signal – an encrypted communications app that uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages which can include files, voice notes, images and videos, which can be set to disappear after a set period of time. According to Wired, Signal is the one messaging app everyone should be using.
Wickr Me – a messaging app that allows users to exchange end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, including photos, videos, and file attachments.
Telegram – cloud-based instant messaging app with end-to-end encryption that allows users to send messages, photos, videos, audio messages and files. It has a feature where messages and attachments can disappear after a set period of time.
CoverMe – a private messaging app that allows users to exchange messages, files, photographs, and phone calls from a fake (or “burner”) phone number. It also allows for private internet browsing, and allows users to hide messages and files.
Confide – a messaging app that allows users to send end-to-end encrypted messages. The user can also send self-destructing messages purportedly screenshot-proof.
Evidentiary Issues:
Messaging app data, like other forms of evidence, must, amongst other criteria, be relevant (Fed.R.Evid. 401); authenticated (Fed.R.Evid. 901 et seq); and comply with the best evidence rule (Fed.R.Evid 1001 et seq).
As for the Best Evidence Rule, based on the nature of disappearing messaging apps, the original writing of the message is not preserved for litigation. SeeFed.R.Evid. 1004(a) (finding that the original is not required if “all the originals are lost or destroyed, and not by the proponent acting in bad faith.”) Sometimes, the contents of the message may be established by the testimony of a witness. In other cases, the contents of the message may be based on a screen shot of the message.
Authenticating messages from apps, regardless of their ephemeral nature, is often difficult—text messages can be easily faked. When it comes ephemeral messages, we often must rely upon a screenshot or testimony regarding the alleged contents of the message. In such circumstances, the following factors—repurposed from Best Practices for Authenticating Digital Evidence—are useful[2]:
testimony from a witness who identifies the account as that of the alleged author, on the basis that the witness on other occasions communicated with the account holder;
testimony from a participant in the conversation based on firsthand knowledge that the screen shot fairly and accurately captures the conversation;
evidence that the purported author used the same messaging app and associated screen name on other occasions;
evidence that the purported author acted in accordance with the message (e.g., when a meeting with that person was arranged in a message, he or she attended);
evidence that the purported author identified himself or herself as the individual sending the message;
use in the conversation of the customary nickname, avatar, or emoticon associated with the purported author;
disclosure in the message of particularized information either unique to the purported author or known only to a small group of individuals including the purported author;
evidence that the purported author had in his or her possession information given to the person using messaging app;
evidence that the messaging app was downloaded on the purported author’s digital device; and evidence that the purported author elsewhere discussed the same subject.
Conclusion:
Ephemeral messaging app data will continue to impact investigators, attorneys, and the Court. Defense teams should be prepared for the challenges ephemeral messages cause from investigations to evidentiary issues.
The National Litigation Support Team (NLST) recently presented a national webinar entitled, “Managing and Reviewing Electronic Discovery for CJA Panel Attorneys.” This 90-minute webinar was recorded and is available on fd.org for your review. The recording provides an overview of technology, techniques and search strategies that can help CJA panel attorneys (and federal defender organization personnel) with your review and analysis of electronically stored information that is provided in discovery. We discussed resources that are available to you as a CJA panel attorney or federal defender employee, and questions to ask the next time you get a complex case. Topics covered include the importance of search and retrieval techniques, encryption, Box.com, Adobe Acrobat Pro, dtSearch, CaseMap, Casepoint, and new federal criminal Rule 16.1.
If you are interested in viewing the recording, please go to fd.org/program-materials-and-videos. (NOTE: To view the webinar, you will need to be either a CJA panel attorney who has registered with fd.org , or a member of a federal defender office. If you need assistance accessing the information, go to fd.org/login-help). If you have follow-up questions about any of the topics (as the presentation was meant as an overview), please email us.
[Editor’s Note: 
