John M. Facciola
Encyclopedia
John M. Facciola is a United States Magistrate Judge
for the District of Columbia, appointed in August, 1997. Prior to being appointed to the bench, he served as an Assistant District Attorney
in Manhattan from 1969–1973, and was in private practice in the District of Columbia from 1974–1982. Judge Facciola joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1982. He served in the Appellate and Civil Divisions and then as Chief of the Special Proceedings section from 1989 until his appointment as Magistrate Judge. He has been an adjunct professor of law at Catholic University
and at Georgetown University Law Center
, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation
and a member of the Board of Governors of the John Carroll Society
. He has been the Editor in Chief of the Federal Courts Law Review, the electronic law journal of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association. He is also on the Advisory Board for the Sedona Conference, an organization which brings together attorneys, judges, and experts to help advance the law in a collaborative, just and reasoned manner. Judge Facciola has been a thought leader in issues related to electronic discovery
. He has written a number of opinions and lectures frequently on the topic.
, and his JD in 1969 from the Georgetown University Law Center
.
(ESI), discovery practice, and professionalism of the bar.
United States magistrate judge
In the United States federal courts, magistrate judges are appointed to assist United States district court judges in the performance of their duties...
for the District of Columbia, appointed in August, 1997. Prior to being appointed to the bench, he served as an Assistant District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
in Manhattan from 1969–1973, and was in private practice in the District of Columbia from 1974–1982. Judge Facciola joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1982. He served in the Appellate and Civil Divisions and then as Chief of the Special Proceedings section from 1989 until his appointment as Magistrate Judge. He has been an adjunct professor of law at Catholic University
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
and at Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation
American Bar Foundation
Established in 1952, the ' is an independent, nonprofit national research institute located in Chicago, Illinois committed to objective empirical research on law and legal institutions...
and a member of the Board of Governors of the John Carroll Society
John Carroll Society
The John Carroll Society was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1951 as a spiritual and beneficent organization for Catholic professional laypersons in the service of the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. The founders of the society were Secretary of the Navy John L...
. He has been the Editor in Chief of the Federal Courts Law Review, the electronic law journal of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association. He is also on the Advisory Board for the Sedona Conference, an organization which brings together attorneys, judges, and experts to help advance the law in a collaborative, just and reasoned manner. Judge Facciola has been a thought leader in issues related to electronic discovery
Electronic Discovery
Electronic discovery refers to discovery in civil litigation which deals with the exchange of information in electronic format . Usually a digital forensics analysis is performed to recover evidence...
. He has written a number of opinions and lectures frequently on the topic.
Education
Judge Facciola received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1966 from College of the Holy CrossCollege of the Holy Cross
The College of the Holy Cross is an undergraduate Roman Catholic liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA...
, and his JD in 1969 from the Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
.
Cases of Note
As Magistrate Judge, Facciola has issued several decisions in which he opined on electronically stored informationElectronically stored information
Electronically stored information, for the purpose of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is information created, manipulated, communicated, stored, and best utilized in digital form, requiring the use of computer hardware and software....
(ESI), discovery practice, and professionalism of the bar.
- In Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington v. Executive Office of the President, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act against the Office of AdministrationOffice of AdministrationThe Office of Administration is an entity within the Executive Office of the President tasked with overseeing the general administration of the entire Executive Office.-History:...
suggesting that e-mails were improperly deleted from White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
computer servers from late 2003 through late 2005, during the time period of the Iraq War and the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. Facciola wrote the reports and recommendations adopted by Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. who presided. Facciola ordered the White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
to preserve backups which could contain the missing information. Subsequent objections and requests for dismissal continued until the end of the Bush administration at which time Facciola ordered the Executive Office of the President to search workstations and issue a notice to employees to preserve media that may contain e-mail created or received during that period. - In United States v. O’Keefe, Judge Facciola dismissed a defendant's objection to the adequacy of keywordsKeywordsKeywords are the words that are used to reveal the internal structure of an author's reasoning. While they are used primarily for rhetoric, they are also used in a strictly grammatical sense for structural composition, reasoning, and comprehension...
used by the prosecution and ruled that a party challenging the efficacy of an opposing party's search terms must do so through expert testimony. He noted the complexity of search in the identification and production of electronically stored information and concluded that “[w]hether search terms or ‘keywords’ will yield the information sought is a complicated question involving the interplay, at least, of the sciences of computerComputerA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
technology, statisticsStatisticsStatistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
and linguisticsLinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
. ... Given this complexity, for lawyers and judges to dare opine that a certain search term or terms would be more likely to produce information than the terms that were used is truly to go where angels fear to tread.” - In Equity Analytics v. Lundin, the plaintiff claimed that a former employee gained illegal access to electronically stored information after he was fired and requested production of material on his personal computer. Judge Facciola concluded that challenges to or defenses of search methodology in producing e-discovery require expert testimony to assist the court such as that contemplated under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.