Editor's Note: This article was chosen in the second annual blind competition by the Arizona State University-Arkfeld E-Discovery and Digital Evidence Conference. The other two 2015 winners are Joel Henry, and Maureen O'Neill. The three have been invited to present their papers during the conference, which will be held at ASU's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, in Tempe, Ariz., March 11-13. (Monica Bay, LTN's editor-in-chief, also will be speaking at the conference.)

In an era where “software eats the world,” will “Big Data” software eat the proportionality doctrine?

The principle of proportionality requires that the burden of discovery must be proportionate to the value of a case. [1] This principle is of particular importance in electronic discovery, where huge volumes of data and difficulties in preserving, collecting and reviewing that data can generate enormous costs, even in cases with a low value.