ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Electronically stored information (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure)

Electronic stored information, or ESI for short, is like all the stuff you keep on your computer or phone - pictures, videos, text messages, emails, and more. Sometimes, grown-ups need to use this stuff in court to prove or disprove something, like who did something wrong or who owns something.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are a set of rules that govern how court cases work in the United States. One of these rules is about ESI, and it says that parties in a lawsuit have to share their ESI with each other when they ask for it. They have to give it to each other in a way that makes it easy to read and search.

This ESI has to be kept safe and not deleted or altered because it’s important evidence. The grown-ups might use special tools to look at the ESI and find things that are important to their case. The rules also say that if someone intentionally destroys ESI or hides it, they can get into big trouble.

So, basically, electronic stored information is like a big collection of computer and phone stuff that grown-ups use to prove their cases in court, and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have special rules for how to handle it.