In the latest update to the XRP lawsuit, the court ordered Ripple, in a Text-only order, to conduct an appropriate search of related videos and recordings and to create response files for its internal sessions. The court found that Ripple’s prior search of its minutes of the meeting “was insufficient in this case”.

SEC Request For Ripple’s Internal Meeting Recordings

This new development was reported on November 8. Ripple lawyer, James K. Filan stated that Judge Netburn approved the US Securities and Exchange Commission motion to request Ripple to search for and hand over videos and recordings of internal Ripple meetings.

While the order was uncovered, the court also stressed that the manual review of more than 64,000 recordings was “unreasonable”. To reduce the search effort, the court also recommends that the parties meet and agree on a schedule so that the tape can provide the largest possible response to the SEC’s inquiry.

Since Ripple has stated that it has 64,000 records, the parties need to meet and agree on a specific time frame when the record is most likely to respond to the SEC’s inquiry into the investigation. The Court recognizes that a human review of the recordings may be unreasonable, a reasonable search could include automated transcriptions of recordings (similar to the common technology used to transcribe voicemail messages) and the use of search terms. 

Ripple vs SEC Lawsuit Settlement Not Anytime Soon 

Last month, Ripple denied the plaintiff’s request for compulsory discovery, claiming that the commission’s “boiling ocean” requirement was completely inconsistent with federal regulations and went on to claim that plaintiff’s request was disproportionate based on the discovery.

Ripple wrote that the SEC’s demand that Ripple review every single recording in the BlueJeans and Zoom databases for responsiveness and privilege is plainly disproportionate under Rule 26(b)(1), and collapses the distinction between a “search” for responsive content and a wholesale review of every recording.

However, the SEC disagrees with Ripple’s objections, arguing that the defense can easily transcribe the recording and then search the transcribed text for an efficient and effective search instead of searching hundreds at a time, which the court now recommends Ripple do it.