December 1, 2004 – Page 11 – Electronic Discovery Law

Ranta v. Ranta, 2004 WL 504588 (Conn. Super. Ct. Feb. 25, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiff wife ordered to stop using the couple’s laptop computer and deposit it with the clerk of court, so that it may be marked as evidence and stored in court’s vault; order extended to all floppy disks, CDs, etc; neither party to be allowed to access the laptop, rather, it may only be accessed by a recognized computer expert under oath testifying from the witness stand in open court

Nature of Case: Divorce proceeding

Electronic Data Involved: Laptop

Rambus, Inc. v. Infineon Tech. AG, 222 F.R.D. 280 (E.D. Va. 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Based on in camera review, court granted defendant’s motion to compel based on the crime/fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, ordered production of other documents on same subject matter and further ruled that discovery would be allowed regarding documents produced and on the issue of sanctions

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Email, backup tapes

QZO, Inc. v. Moyer, 594 S.E.2d 541(S.C. Ct. App. 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: No abuse of discretion for trial court to strike defendant’s answer and enter judgment for plaintiff on issue of liability, where defendant reformatted computer’s hard drive, effectively erasing any information the computer may have contained, a day before surrendering it for court-ordered inspection

Nature of Case: Dispute between former business partners

Electronic Data Involved: Laptop

Pueblo of Laguna v. United States, 60 Fed.Cl. 133 (2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Government’s past evidentiary failures in other similar litigation appeared to be so pervasive and systematic as to provide ample support for issuance of a document preservation order in this case

Nature of Case: Tribe sued government for mismanagement of trust accounts

Electronic Data Involved: Documents stored in various media related to parties’ claims

In re Propulsid Prods. Liab. Litig., 2003 WL 22174137 (E.D. La. Sept. 9, 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Brief reference to court’s earlier order narrowing the scope of subpoena to hard copy documents only, rather than including production of electronic documents

Nature of Case: Product liability

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic production of documents

Propath Services, L.L.P. v. Ameripath, Inc., 2004 WL 2389214 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 21, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court entered preliminary injunction prohibiting defendants from, among other things, deleting, destroying or altering any document, email or computer drive containing any ProPath or ProPath related information, and required defendants to segregate said items into a confidential file not to be used in their business

Nature of Case: Contract breach, misappropriation of confidential information, breach of fiduciary duty

Electronic Data Involved: Email and other electronic files

Promega Corp. v. Applera Corp., 2002 WL 32340886 (W.D. Wis. Nov. 27, 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: After plaintiffs objected to production of sales database because it was not organized to its liking, and defendants produced two further iterations in an attempt to respond to plaintiffs’ complaints, court denied plaintiff’s motion to compel production of “complete and accurate” database since court “was not convinced that defendants have failed to produce this information, even if it is not in the ideal format plaintiff desires”

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Sales database

Procter & Gamble Co. v. Haugen, 179 F.R.D. 622 (D. Utah 1998)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiff sanctioned $10,000 for failing to preserve or search email of certain persons; key word search to be narrowed

Nature of Case: Business sued competitors for defamation and unfair competition

Electronic Data Involved: Email, databases (scope of key word search)

Premier Homes & Land Corp. v. Cheswell, Inc., 240 F. Supp. 2d 97 (D. Mass. 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: In related action, court granted defendant’s ex parte application to allow its consultants to create mirror images of plaintiff’s computer hard drives, backup tapes and other storage media, in light of allegation that critical document and email were fabricated; after granting unopposed motion to dismiss, court awarded defendant $24,845.99 in fees and costs, including computer consultant fees of $5,650

Nature of Case: Alleged breach of lease agreement

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drives and other storage devices

Positive Software Solutions, Inc. v. New Century Mortgage Corp., 259 F. Supp. 2d 561 (N.D. Tex. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court entered preservation order requiring preservation of all extant backups or images of all servers or personal computers containing disputed software or email; court denied motion to compel imaging of all media potentially containing software or electronic evidence relevant to the claims in the suit, and all images of defendants’ computer storage facilities, drives and servers taken to date, as substantially overbroad

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Backups and images of servers, software and email

Archive - December 1, 2004