Da Silva Moore Update: Judge Peck Responds to Plaintiffs' "Scorched Earth" Campaign

In the latest twist in the Da Silva Moore predictive coding case, Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck has responded to Plaintiffs' personal attack on him.

In a two page Order specifically addressing Plaintiffs' March 28, 2012 letter requesting Judge Peck's recusal, Judge Peck projects an aura of control, restraint, and is matter of fact in his statements. Judge Peck states:

"The Court notes that my favorable view of computer assisted review technology in general was well known to plaintiffs before I made any ruling in this case, and I have never endorsed Recommind's methodology or technology, nor received any reimbursement from Recommind for appearing at any conference that (apparently) they and other vendors sponsored, such as Legal Tech. I have had no discussions with Mr. Losey about this case, nor was I aware that he is working on the case. It appears that after plaintiffs' counsel and vendor represented to me that they agreed to the use of predictive coding, plaintiffs now claim that my public statements approving generally of computer assisted review make me biased. If plaintiffs were to prevail, it would serve to discourage judges (and for that matter attorneys) from speaking on educational panels about ediscovery (or any other subject for that matter). The Court suspects this will fall on deaf ears, but I strongly suggest that plaintiffs rethink their 'scorched earth' approach to this litigation."

Judge Peck’s response is in sharp contrast to Plaintiffs’ emotional and personal attach levied against the Judge. I applaud Judge Peck for taking the highroad and sticking to the facts, while still making his points. I am sure there will be more to come from this case and the eDiscovery News blog will keep you posted with any updates we become aware of.

To read the eDiscovery News blog’s original post about Plaintiff’s attack on Judge Peck please use the following link: http://ediscoverynewssource.blogspot.com/2012/03/update-plaintiffs-attack-judge-pecks-da.html
Monica Bay of Law Technology News wrote an interesting article summarizing some of the commentary of Plaintiffs’ attack. That article can be reached via the following link: http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202547231187&Da_Silva_Moore_Plaintiffs_Reply_Brief_Generates_Quite_a_Bit_of_Fury