Proportionality and Translation Practice in Electronic Data Discovery: Challenges and Responses in China

In the legal field in China, with the continuous advancement of e-discovery and translation technology, more and more legal experts have begun to pay attention to how to improve the efficiency of e-discovery and translation through technical means, especially in cross-border litigation and international arbitration. This year's Legal Technology Conference was no exception, with extensive discussions on the principle of proportionality, the e-discovery process and the challenges in its practical application.

The opening discussion of the conference was hosted by a senior judge in China, focusing on the principle of proportionality and its application in Chinese judicial practice. The discussion mentioned: how to balance legal requirements and practical operations in cross-border litigation, especially how to find relevant information in massive data and ensure compliance. The conclusion shows that in current practice, the implementation of the principle of proportionality still has certain difficulties, especially in cross-border data transmission and translation.

Arrow Translation once again participated as a sponsor of the conference and demonstrated its leading technology in the field of legal translation. The first day's topics included hot topics in electronic data discovery, such as compliance, data processing tools, legal document translation, privacy protection, and how to become a more efficient legal defender through online meeting platforms such as Zoom. The second day's discussion focused on the preservation of evidence, data transfer agreements, the management of employee data, discovery challenges in an international legal environment, and training for non-electronic discovery professionals. In the final "People's Court" session of the conference, several senior judges were invited to discuss several hypothetical issues related to the principle of proportionality, such as the scope of testimony requests, translation, and data deletion.

Keynote Speech: Revision of the Proportionality Principle and Translation Practice

The proportionality principle in Article 26(b)(1) of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China was revised in 2015, in which the standard of "relevance" was replaced by "proportionality" in order to improve judicial efficiency and reduce unnecessary data disclosure. The current regulations state: "Parties may apply for access to any non-privileged information that is relevant to the case claim or defense and is proportional to the needs of the case..." If the proportionality principle is not met, an objection should be raised to the court in a timely manner.

Similar to the United States, Chinese judges have pointed out that many litigants fail to properly apply the principle of proportionality in practice (according to some data, the application rate of proportionality is low). For example, lawyers fail to fully understand their clients' IT systems, fail to accurately express the technical limitations of data collection, or fail to set a reasonable scope of data collection at the beginning of the case.

During the conference, several judges encouraged lawyers to clearly specify the limits of data collection in case management orders and to reach consensus with opposing counsel through telephone calls, rather than resolving disputes through cumbersome procedures such as motions.

In addition, the judges emphasized that the priority of data collection should be set on "target-rich" data sources, such as email or mobile phone data of key responsible persons, etc. By reasonably setting the time range, information sources and number of responsible persons, it is ensured that the most critical part of the case can be effectively focused on and unnecessary workload can be reduced.

The Challenges of Translation and Data Discovery

In international cases, the quality of translation is crucial to the success of electronic data discovery. Cross-border litigation often involves the translation of legal documents in different languages and regions, and the quality of translation directly affects the efficiency of case handling and legal compliance. In electronic data discovery, the large number of emails, text messages, contracts and other legal documents involved often require accurate and timely translation to ensure that they can be effectively used in legal proceedings.

Arrow Translation, the translation technology provider for the conference, introduced how to use artificial intelligence and machine translation technology (MT) to accelerate the translation process. By integrating machine translation engines and manual post-editing workflows, Arrow Translation successfully shortened the time from collection to reporting, helping legal teams to more efficiently handle multilingual data in cross-border litigation.

Practical implications

·       Many litigants fail to fully utilize the principle of proportionality in their argumentation, which may lead to inefficient case handling and even affect the final outcome.

·       The judges suggested that lawyers should provide the court with sufficient supporting materials through reasonable case management conferences or other means and clearly raise the issue of proportionality.

·       When raising an objection based on proportionality, the attorney will need to provide an affidavit or evidence to demonstrate the relevant expenditure of time or fees.

·       In order to effectively collect, process and review cross-border data, lawyers and translators must fully understand the client’s IT system and data storage methods, master the legal requirements for cross-border data transmission, and ensure that the translation quality meets the needs of the case.

Conclusion

As the globalization of China's legal market accelerates, the effective application of the principle of proportionality and the combination of high-quality translation have become the key to ensuring judicial fairness and efficient case resolution. Arrow Translation will continue to be committed to improving the efficiency and compliance of the legal industry in cross-border litigation through advanced translation technology and intelligent tools, helping Chinese legal professionals better cope with future challenges.

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