A particularized showing of need is required before the court will compel the production of documents in native file format with metadata. This requirement was met by the plaintiffs in Delaware Acceptance v. Estate of Metzner, C.A. No. 8861-MA (Del. Ch. Feb. 17, 2016), a recent report by Master in Chancery Kim Ayvazian.
Metadata, or “information about data,” is information hidden in the files of electronic documents by word processing and other computer programs. What makes this case interesting is that the metadata that was requested was in the hands of a third party, the defendants’ former law firm, and not a party to the case. The issue arose in the context of a motion for clarification of an earlier discovery order.
