Special Master · Discovery Referee · Forensic Neutral
Discovery disputes are the most expensive fights in litigation. Resolve them in weeks, not motion cycles.
Daniel B. Garrie is a discovery special master and eDiscovery neutral — a technically fluent jurist appointed by state and federal courts nationwide to resolve discovery and ESI disputes. He is as comfortable with engineers and developers as with lawyers and judges.
Special Master
In re Facebook, Inc. Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation. Appointed by Judge Chhabria, N.D. Cal.
Discovery Referee
Dozens of appointments. L.A. Superior Court and courts in WA, NY, IL, FL, NV, and elsewhere.
Law & Technology
20+ years at the intersection of law and technology. 400+ publications. Harvard faculty.
His report was a model of clarity — even to a lay person — and demonstrated how extremely conscientious and thorough he had been. The report was directly responsible for the prompt settlement not only of the case immediately before me, but also seven other disputes between the parties.— The judge who appointed Mr. Garrie as Special Master on a complex dispute
Who this is for
For litigation counsel who would rather resolve the discovery fight than brief it for six months.
If your case has stalled on a discovery question that turns on how the technology actually works, a neutral who understands both the rules and the systems can move it faster than a motion calendar can.
ESI protocol fights
Format, scope, custodians, and metadata disputes that keep production from starting.
Spoliation allegations
Servers, mobile devices, cloud accounts, and biometric timekeeping data said to be lost or altered.
TAR and search-term disputes
Disagreements over predictive coding, validation, and search-term protocols.
Privilege review disputes
Volume, methodology, and claw-back fights that bog down a production.
Forensic inspection battles
Protocols governing access to and imaging of an opposing party's systems.
AI and algorithm discovery
Disputes over models, training data, and algorithmic systems as discoverable evidence.
When to use a discovery neutral
A neutral does the work the court does not have time to do.
The same fight can be routed three ways. The right vehicle depends on the forum and what the parties are willing to stipulate to.
Special Master under FRCP 53
Federal courts appoint a master to manage and decide discovery matters that would otherwise consume the docket.
Discovery referee under CCP §§ 638–639
California courts refer discovery disputes to a referee by stipulation or, where warranted, by motion.
Forensic neutral and ESI mediator
Parties stipulate to a neutral to design inspection protocols or to mediate the protocol itself before it hardens into a motion.
Meet the neutral
A jurist who speaks both languages: the rules of discovery and the systems the evidence lives on.
Over more than 20 years, Daniel has been appointed and appeared before the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the New York Supreme Court, the Delaware Supreme Court, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, and Seventh Circuits. He teaches cybersecurity, computer forensics, and smart contracts at Harvard, and founded the consulting firm Law & Forensics in 2008.
Watch · JAMS introduction
Representative matters
Organized by the dispute, not the industry.
Selected appointments and engagements, grouped by the kind of discovery fight they resolved.
Credentials
Twenty years where the law and the technology meet.
Publications, cited across 500+ articles, briefs, and judicial opinions.
Faculty teaching cybersecurity, computer forensics, and smart contracts.
Co-creator of the JAMS AI Dispute Resolution Rules.
U.S. cybersecurity patents, and co-author of the Federal Judicial Center guide for judges.
Start a conversation
Discuss a potential appointment.
Tell us a little about the dispute. A JAMS Case Manager can discuss whether a Special Master, discovery referee, or forensic neutral fits your matter — and the procedural path to appointment.
Name the neutral, then route the engagement.
Stipulate to or request Daniel Garrie by name. Engagement is administered through JAMS.