No More Chances: Personal Devices, Resistant Custodians, and the Cost of Ignoring an ESI Discovery Order
Adam J Schwartz, Esq. entered Breaking Code Silence v. McNamara as a consultant on document review and ESI issues. His initial assignment was to help develop and advocate the defendants' position in a court-ordered joint ESI plan.
The assignment became a two-year engagement spanning discovery, attempted resolution, and summary judgment. The plaintiff ultimately dismissed the case with prejudice before the anticipated ruling on the defendants’ motion. After dismissal, the court found that the plaintiff violated the stipulated ESI order by failing to preserve, search, and produce ESI from required organizational and personal sources. The court awarded the defendants $34,986.50 in fees.
Using that dispute as a roadmap, this program shows paralegals how to identify personal data sources, interview custodians, track collection, document refusals, escalate problems, and build a defensible discovery record.
Attendees leave with tools they can use the next morning
Presented by: Adam J Schwartz, Esq. Founder and CEO of DocumentReview.Law
Tuesday, November 17, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Online via Zoom
All Attendees - FREE!
Practical Medical Record Review for Litigation Paralegals
Your Records Arrived. Are They Complete?
A 1,400-page medical record arrives and appears complete. The attorney wants the chronology started. But buried in the file are references to a specialist consultation that was never produced, imaging without the underlying report, and a follow-up encounter that appears nowhere else.
Using a litigation case, participants will decide at several points whether they would proceed, flag the issue, or request more records. Dr. Gupta will show how referrals, orders, medication changes, imaging references, and later notes can reveal records that should exist but are missing.
The session also addresses a distinction that can materially affect a case: is the documentation missing, or was the care itself missing? Participants will then see the same case with AI software and compare what they identified manually with what the platform surfaces and links back to the underlying source record.
Participants will learn to:
• recognize clues that a medical-record production may be incomplete;
• distinguish missing documentation from a possible gap in care; and
• formulate a more targeted follow-up records request.
Presented by: Saurabh Gupta, MD, FACC
Thursday, November 19, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Online via Zoom
LAPA Members - $10.00 Non-members - $25.00
Saurabh Gupta, MD, FACC, is Professor of Medicine at Washington State University and an interventional cardiologist. He previously served as Chief of Cardiology at St. Charles Health System and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Oregon Health & Science University. His leadership includes service on the Board of Governors of the American College of Cardiology, as chair of the Investigative Committee of the Oregon Medical Board, and on steering committees for the National Cardiovascular Data Registry to advance cardiovascular quality nationally and internationally. An experienced medical expert in complex medicolegal matters, he brings clinical, quality, medical regulatory, and litigation perspectives to medical record analysis. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gupta-md/
Defective by Design: A Products Liability Primer
Presented by: Kristy M. Arevalo, Esq. McCune Law Group
Tuesday, November 24, 2026 6:30 - 7:30 PM Online via Zoom
Preparing Your Firm for California's SPARE Act: What Los Angeles Paralegals Need to Know Before January 1, 2027
Beginning January 1, 2027, AB 747 (the SPARE Act) replaces the "reasonable diligence" standard with strict, evidence-based service of process rules. Proofs of service that don't comply could be challenged, and the burden of proving valid service shifts to the plaintiff. This 45-minute session, led by Jeff Karotkin, a 30+ year process serving and court filing veteran who worked with legislators on the bill's language, explains what changes and what your team must do about it.
You will learn:
Presented by: Jeff H. Karotkin Steno
Thursday, December 3, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Online via Zoom
Jeff H. Karotkin - Senior Director of Litigation Support at Steno
· Over 30+ years of experience in the process serving and court filing industry
· Worked directly with legislators and stakeholders on the language of AB 747 as it moved through the California Assembly and Senate
· Pioneered eFiling at One Legal, LLC and built the first digital Service of Process platform
· Former President of CALSPro and NAPPS; author of Bloomberg Law's industry analysis of the SPARE Act
Slip into your coziest holiday sweater and meet us at Shoo Shoo Baby for our annual Holiday Benefit Mixer!
Each ticket includes two drink tickets for specialty cocktails, plus entry to a LAPA raffle!
Friday, December 4, 2026 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Shoo Shoo Baby 717 W 7th Street Los Angeles, CA 90017
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