2007 – Page 34 – Electronic Discovery Law

Court Orders Expert Witness to Preserve Evidence in Drug Case

Jan 08 2007

In re Zyprexa Prods. Liab. Litig., 2006 WL 3821491 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 28, 2006)

In this order, the court ordered plaintiff’s expert witness to “immediately preserve any and all documents and information including, but not limited to, all computer(s), hard-drives, other electronic storage media, hardcopy documents, emails, e-documents, text messaging, instant messaging, phone records and voice mails, that refer or relate to Zyprexa,” his receipt of confidential documents, his obligations under various case management orders, and various other topics. The court cautioned that, if anything responsive to the order had been deleted or destroyed, “any and all relevant computers” were to be produced to permit forensic examination and recovery of such documents.

A copy of a New York Times article filed in the case and providing some background for the order is here.

Court Orders Lawyer to Return Documents About an Eli Lilly Drug

Jan 02 2007

From the December 20, 2006 issue of the NY Times:

"A federal court in Brooklyn overseeing product liability lawsuits against Eli Lilly’s best-selling drug Zyprexa has ordered the lawyer who provided company documents to The New York Times and other organizations and individuals to return the documents.

The internal Eli Lilly documents and e-mail messages detailed efforts by the drug maker to play down the health risks of Zyprexa, a medication to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as to encourage primary care physicians to use it in patients who did not have the disorder. "

Click here to read the entire article [subscription required].

Archive - 2007