Electronic Discovery in the Domican Republic

mandryjx · Jun 29, 2006

Electronic Discovery in DR

I have been contemplating the idea of moving to DR. Presently I reside in Florida and am a Litigation Support Specialist for a relatively small Orlando based firm (65 partners; 40 associates).

Can anyone tell me if Electronic Discovery Rules apply in the DR. I realize the judicial process in DR differs from that of the US, however I would think that litigation, regardless of the country is treated similarly.
For instance:
Rule 16(b)(5)&(66) pertains to Pretrial Conferences, and Scheduling Management.
Rule 26(a)(1)(B) are General Provisions governing Discovery; Duty of Disclosure; Required Disclosure and Methods to Discover Additional Matter, etc.
Hence, my role is primarily based on the data management, vendor contacts, pleading organizations, transcript files, extranets, etc. as this process correlates with programs such as Summation, Concordance, Sanction, etc.
Does anyone know whether or not the DR has firms that have case loads where litigated matters require, if not mandate the technical savvyness of electronic filing.
Also, is there a site similar to www.martindale.com. A site that enables one to search for firms and provides attorney bios. This is a site sponsored by LexisNexis here in the U.S..
Any and all tips are greatly appreciated.

mandryjx · Jun 30, 2006

Electronic Filing

To all of you who have perused through my question, but have opted not to respond - apologies for having spelled ?Dominican? incorrectly. Big mistake. I'm new to this forum, and hence was not able to modify the title or subject of my discussion. However, if there is a way to modify that title, can someone tell me how it can be done, so as not to offend anyone. As I'm under the impression that the typo has caused such lack of response.

aranoid:

HOWMAR · Jun 30, 2006

That's not the reason for lack of response. The reason that electronic technology hasn't entered the Dominican legal system is the extremely high numbers of lawyers per capita. Law frims don't need to modernize with the large number of Dominican lawyers looking for work at wages just above those of menial laborers. Also, another factor limiting the amount of litigation in the Dominican system is the fact that the losers pay the winners expenses. A plaintiff who loses, has to pay the defendants costs. This really limits the amounts of nuisance cases. In fact, a foreigner who wishes to bring a case in a Dominican court, must post a bond to cover expenses in case he loses.

Chris · Jun 30, 2006

Lack of response? What made me gulp was the following...

mandryjx said:
Litigation Support Specialist for a relatively small Orlando based firm (65 partners; 40 associates).

(Bolding mine)

I guess I've been here too long but my mind wondered and I cannot think of any DR law firm that is even a quarter of that size ... And then secondly, I have no idea if what you are talking about is even a glimmer in the eye here in the DR.

For the legal questions, the attorney that answers legal questions on this forum could better advise you. He is not on the board daily but usually pops in over weekends.

mandryjx · Jun 30, 2006

HOWMAR,
Thank you very much - excited to have read a response to my posting. I appreciate you taking the time to send me a quick shout out. 
However, and pardon my prudence, recovering legal expenses from the person who lost a case is the only way I?ve seen it done. ??? So I?m a bit quizzed as to how that relates to my question. Perhaps I have not received responses due to the manner in which I worded the question.
Here in the states we have more lawyers than citizens. Fact is a manifesto of attorneys has no relevance - Electronic filing comes into play in various forms and for a multitude of reasons. The Enron scandal helped many look at electronic media a bit more seriously. Forensic specialist were used to pull information from hard drives, blackberry?s, phone logs, trios, etc. Hence, that information is transferred into a database which now enables a litigator to pull privileged/non privileged information with a matter of minutes. It?s a paperless, concise, prove without a shadow of a doubt process. I was just wondering if the DR has ventured down these paths yet.

mandryjx · Jun 30, 2006

Hi Chris,
Sorry to have made you gulp. I?m a city girl, have worked for firms that have offices all over the world. Thereby making this firm the smallest I?ve ever worked for. In fact Orlando is considered a city, and yet I feel as if I?m in a little country town. I have seen so much change in the Dominican Republic within the last 8 years. With all the luxury amenities now offered, 28 bedroom villas, hotels with casino?s, etc. I find it almost hard to believe that the legal system out there is still that primitive. Thank you for your response, it is very much appreciated. Perhaps even the smaller boutique firms will find the necessity to venture down the path of eDiscovery one day. I hope its soon, as I want to eventually make Santo Domingo my home.

Ricardo900 · Jun 30, 2006

You would need two MAJOR law firms representing two MAJOR corporations suing each other for whatever reason. I have experience with "eDiscovery" and that's a major undertaking for a small local law firm in the DR. And what about Document Production?? You can't expect Kinkos to handle a massive 500,000+ production job. Plus, the equipment, computers, experienced personnel, and other factors needed for a commercial litigation suit, that will literally run around the clock.

HOWMAR · Jun 30, 2006

mandryjx said:
HOWMAR,
However, and pardon my prudence, recovering legal expenses from the person who lost a case is the only way I’ve seen it done. ??? .

You aren't telling me that a plaintiff has to pay a defendant his legal expenses if he fails to prove his case are you? If that were so, most cases in the US would never be filed.

mandryjx said:
Perhaps I have not received responses due to the manner in which I worded the question.
Here in the states we have more lawyers than citizens

.
The DR has a much higher number of lawyers per capita than the US.

mandryjx said:
Fact is a manifesto of attorneys has no relevance - Electronic filing comes into play in various forms and for a multitude of reasons. The Enron scandal helped many look at electronic media a bit more seriously. Forensic specialist were used to pull information from hard drives, blackberry’s, phone logs, trios, etc. Hence, that information is transferred into a database which now enables a litigator to pull privileged/non privileged information with a matter of minutes. It’s a paperless, concise, prove without a shadow of a doubt process. I was just wondering if the DR has ventured down these paths yet

The fact is that the Dominican legal system is a paper driven system. Something as basic as property title searches are still done manually by lawyers as all public records are still on paper filed in books.

Until you experience the Dominican legal process it is hard to imagine the application of US legal techniques.

mandryjx · Jun 30, 2006

Hello Ricardo900,
Fact is the Kinkos out here couldn?t even handle a 100 page production job. A 500,000+ production job, is something I could handle myself, even with the most primitive of systems. Now 125 gb of production, my standard workload is something I outsource. However, I do see your point ? perhaps one day this will be something the country is forced to do. Especially since almost everyone has a computer, almost every sends confidential email correspondence and almost everyone communicates via email literally all the time. I just hope I?m there for the boom of success. Thank you for your comment ? much appreciated 

mandryjx · Jun 30, 2006

HOWMAR said:
You aren't telling me that a plaintiff has to pay a defendant his legal expenses if he fails to prove his case are you? If that were so, most cases in the US would never be filed.

.
The DR has a much higher number of lawyers per capita than the US.

The fact is that the Dominican legal system is a paper driven system. Something as basic as property title searches are still done manually by lawyers as all public records are still on paper filed in books.

Until you experience the Dominican legal process it is hard to imagine the application of US legal techniques.

Hi HOWMAR,
Most legal fees are embedded in the suit, hence the cost is covered. Of course this depends on the case. If the defendant files a Motion for Attorneys fees and if the Motion is granted, then yes the loosing party has to cough up those legal fees.

As for DR having a much higher number of lawyers per capita than the US. Not sure where those facts came from. The World FactBook has the following updated info as of '06. Population in DR - 9,183,984; Population in the US - 298,444,215. Your statistic just doesn't seem mathematically correct. I have not looked into compiled per capita census, but the numbers just don't match up based simple population size.

Florida is also a paper driven system, however, technology has forced us to look at electronic discovery methods. I'm hopeful that DR will venture down these paths soon.

Thanks again.

MrMike · Jun 30, 2006

mandryjx said:
Hi HOWMAR,
Most legal fees are embedded in the suit, hence the cost is covered. Of course this depends on the case. If the defendant files a Motion for Attorneys fees and if the Motion is granted, then yes the loosing party has to cough up those legal fees.

As for DR having a much higher number of lawyers per capita than the US. Not sure where those facts came from. The World FactBook has the following updated info as of '06. Population in DR - 9,183,984; Population in the US - 298,444,215. Your statistic just doesn't seem mathematically correct. I have not looked into compiled per capita census, but the numbers just don't match up based simple population size.

Florida is also a paper driven system, however, technology has forced us to look at electronic discovery methods. I'm hopeful that DR will venture down these paths soon.

Thanks again.

What Howmar is trying to say is that in the DR you can kick a trash can over and if a lawyer comes crawling out wondering what all the fuss is about no one will be surprised.

In fact, it is nearly impossible to ever be outside shouting distance of an attorney anywhere in the Dominican Republic.

It's been 8 years since I've lived in the states but I can't remember there being that many lawyers there.

HOWMAR · Jun 30, 2006

mandryjx said:
Hi HOWMAR,
As for DR having a much higher number of lawyers per capita than the US. Not sure where those facts came from. The World FactBook has the following updated info as of '06. Population in DR - 9,183,984; Population in the US - 298,444,215. Your statistic just doesn't seem mathematically correct. I have not looked into compiled per capita census, but the numbers just don't match up based simple population size.

Thanks again.

A commonly known fact as a Law Degree is easily obtained in the DR. Passing the bar is another issue. Although I didn't cite ANY statistics, your stats have what significance? I agree, the US has a bigger population than the DR. I said "per capita". Do a search of DR1 and you will see many references to this issue. BTW, most most American Law School graduates never practice law either.

mandryjx · Jun 30, 2006

MrMike:
How hysterical are you . . . "....kick a trash can over and if a lawyer comes crawling out wondering what all the fuss is about no one will be surprised". That?s a line for comedy view, I'll have to forward it on. What I do find appears to be the case out there is an over infestation of wanna-be's. Anyone and everyone with a simple notary seal immediately thinks they are practicing attorneys. Love your comment. Thanks

MrMike · Jun 30, 2006

From what I can tell without investing too much time it breaks down roughly like this:

about 1 out of every 350 US citizens is a lawyer

about 1 out of every 325 Dominicans is a lawyer

This is based on the following data that I gleaned from a short search and from sources possibly not extremely accurate:

The US population is somewhere near 290 million
The DR population is somehwere near 9 million

There are around 815k lawyers in the US and 27,700 in the DR.

I know censuses show the DR population to be higher than 9 million, but I think it is safer to take a low estimate of the DR population since so many Dominicans are "travelling" abroad at a given moment, and not many ot the "travellers" are lawyers.

HOWMAR · Jun 30, 2006

mandryjx said:
What I do find appears to be the case out there is an over infestation of wanna-be's. Anyone and everyone with a simple notary seal immediately thinks they are practicing attorneys. Love your comment. Thanks

Another misconception. In the DR it is harder to become a Notary than a lawyer. When you consider there are about 30,000 lawyers in the DR. Most notaries in the DR are lawyers. They probably allow the lawyers that can read and write to become notaries.

Fabio J.Guzman said:
The Law on Notaries (Ley de Notariado #301 of 1964) states that the number of notaries may not exceed one per 1,500 inhabitants, giving us a maximum of approx. 6000 notaries in the country (8,500,000 divided by 1,500). Before 1997, the limit was not always enforced except for Santo Domingo.

Notarial acts are subject to many formalities, including the famous stamps. There is a big difference between a “notarial act” (“acto notarial”) and a simple authentication of signatures (“legalización de firmas”). In the “acto notarial” the notary attests to the veracity of what’s declared to him, for example, in a will, and is responsible professionally for any mistakes in the preparation of the document. In the “authentication of signatures,” the Notary just attests to the fact that the persons signing the documents signed in his presence, without being responsible for the contents of the document.

MrMike · Jun 30, 2006

mandryjx said:
MrMike:
How hysterical are you . . . "....kick a trash can over and if a lawyer comes crawling out wondering what all the fuss is about no one will be surprised". That?s a line for comedy view, I'll have to forward it on. What I do find appears to be the case out there is an over infestation of wanna-be's. Anyone and everyone with a simple notary seal immediately thinks they are practicing attorneys. Love your comment. Thanks

I don't think there is a bar association here, if there is they keep a pretty low profile and certainly don't function the way the one in the US does, so pretty much anyone graduating with a law degree can call himself a lawyer and start practing right away.

Yes the quality is generally pretty bad but the only thing most really look for in a lawyer here is connections and influence since that is what will generally win the day in most cases.

Generally in a lawsuit the lawyers from both sides will get together secretly and decide between themselves which client is getting screwed.

Rule of law has got a long way to go here and I strongly doubt it will happen in the next couple of lifetimes.

Some believe this is changing more quickly, but I'll believe it when I see it.

mandryjx · Jun 30, 2006

HOWMAR said:
A commonly known fact as a Law Degree is easily obtained in the DR. Passing the bar is another issue. Although I didn't cite ANY statistics, your stats have what significance? I agree, the US has a bigger population than the DR. I said "per capita". Do a search of DR1 and you will see many references to this issue. BTW, most most American Law School graduates never practice law either.

Hey Howmar,
I believe I said, ". . .I have not looked into any compiled per capita censes". Rather I was just looking at total population. I realize that if DR has 9 million people and 7 million are attorneys, well it doesn’t take a rock scientist to figure that one out. Now a statistic showing the number of legit practicing attorneys out there is a whole horse of a different color. Regardless of the fact that its all about connections. Having personally known several people out there who claim they are attorneys but are not in itself explains how that ratio could occur. Never-the-less and with respect to your comment about American Law School graduates . . . for whatever reason in the US yes there are some people who graduate from law school, but opt for not practicing law. The question which I surfaced was whether or not DR deals with eDiscovery.

I can see that in order to answer that question one would tend to get into the specifics of how the judicial process is paper driven, and how attorneys out there come a dime a dozen. Truly the underlying issue, as is the case in most places, is that people tend to be creatures of habit. Most people don't like change. Some people are so set in their ways that even if they are wrong they are right. Just like a few years ago, having a cell in DR was unheard of. Now you have several telecommunication giants out there playing territorial tug of war. Little shops, driven by middle class people, renting out computer time slots are surfacing everywhere out there. Hey even "middle class" is a word not commonly used out there. I've seen big changes in DR within these past few years. I’m very optimistic about this country, which is why I am doing my homework with respect to how certain things operate, which are the better places to live, what firms are promising, etc. Again, thanks HOWMAR for your comments.

Fabio J. Guzman · Jul 7, 2006

Discovery (?comunicaci?n y producci?n de documentos?) in the Dominican Republic is radically different from the US. The Code of Civil Procedure does not expressly contemplate Electronic Discovery but there is no legal obstacle, in my opinion, for a court to order it.

Electronic filing is still not allowed in Dominican courts.

The only database listing all lawyers that I know of is the one at the Dominican Bar Association (Colegio de Abogados de la Rep?blica Dominicana). The Supreme Court may have another one. In any case, you should not look beyond the 20 or 30 Dominican firms listed in Martindale-Hubbell.

mandryjx · Jul 9, 2006

Fabio J. Guzman said:
Discovery (?comunicaci?n y producci?n de documentos?) in the Dominican Republic is radically different from the US. The Code of Civil Procedure does not expressly contemplate Electronic Discovery but there is no legal obstacle, in my opinion, for a court to order it.

Electronic filing is still not allowed in Dominican courts.

The only database listing all lawyers that I know of is the one at the Dominican Bar Association (Colegio de Abogados de la Rep?blica Dominicana). The Supreme Court may have another one. In any case, you should not look beyond the 20 or 30 Dominican firms listed in Martindale-Hubbell.

Thank you very much for your response. I will hold off on considering DR as a destination for my relocation. Though I realize the Napoleonic system adhered to in DR differs greatly from that of the US, I for some reason was under the impression that Rule 26 would apply to all doing international business transactions. Whereby there would be no choice but to hone all electronic discovery procedures in order to have a smidgen of a chance to win a case. Hopefully DR will one day gradutate to those levels. Again, I thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my posting. Sincerely mandryjx.

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