The “American Rule” Rules: Court Declines to Compel Defendants to Share Cost of Plaintiffs’ Subpoena
Last Atlantis Capital LLC v. AGS Specialist Partners, No. 04 C 0397, 2011 WL 6097769 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 5, 2011)
In this case, Plaintiffs proposed that Defendants share in the cost of obtaining data that Plaintiffs subpoenaed. Obtaining the information at issue was described by the court as “the linchpin of this entire matter.” Moreover, the court had suggested (at a status conference) that it would be “reasonable” for Defendants to aid in half the costs. However, Defendants “steadfastly maintained that they ha[d] no independent need for the information, except for rebuttal purposes” and objected strongly to the proposed cost-sharing on the grounds that there was “neither reason nor precedent” for it. Noting that “the time to take definitive stance on the issue ha[d] arrived,” the court agreed.