When the Delaware Court of Chancery adopted Rule 5.1 in late 2012, the court took great pains to inform the public that Rule 5.1 represented a significant departure from the practices under former Rule 5(g). Notwithstanding this admonition from the court, until the court issued opinions addressing the new aspects of Rule 5.1, particularly what type of information met the “good cause” standard articulated in the rule, there was little guidance to flesh out exactly how the court would apply the new rule.
While there were some shorter opinions and transcripts addressing Rule 5.1, the court did not analyze the rule in depth until Al-Jazeera America v. AT&T Services, C.A. No. 8823-VCG (Del. Ch. Oct. 14, 2013). The court’s opinion in the case is instructive in two areas. First, the procedural background to the opinion provides an excellent summary of some of the procedures new to Rule 5.1, including the “challenge procedure.” Second, the opinion gives us the first lengthy examination of the good-cause standard in Rule 5.1 and the public policy behind it.
