The Ethics of Viewing Metadata

The controversy over whether an attorney is permitted to view the metadata of documents they receive from opposing counsel has been ongoing for some time. A number of jurisdictions--including Florida (Ethics Opinion 06-2) and New York (Ethics Opinion 749)--prohibit an attorney from making use of the metadata. The ABA (Ethics Opinion 06-442), on the other hand, permits it. Boris Reznikov recently published this excellent article on the current state of the legal ethics debate on metadata.