Ethical and evidentiary rules governing the disclosure of confidential information are interrelated in
many respects. Nevertheless, these rules are generally developed independently through different legal channels.
Different approaches to the inadvertent disclosure of confidential information have emerged, leading to uncertain
results in different jurisdictions. Uncertainty persists with regard to metadata available from electronic document
formats. This paper explores the tension between the competing approaches this emerging problem. It argues that
ethical and evidentiary principles addressing the protection and discovery of metadata should be coordinated in
order to avoid creating incentives to maximize litigation costs.