Case Summaries – Page 201 – Electronic Discovery Law

Jacobeit v. Rich Township H.S. Dist. 227, No. 09 CV 1924, 2011 WL 2039588 (N.D. Ill. May 25, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: For defendant?s delayed production of certain relevant documents, including emails, court granted plaintiff permission to re-depose certain witnesses but denied his request for evidentiary and exclusionary sanctions; court found defendant had breached its duty to preserve when it destroyed an audio tape of school board meeting pursuant to the District?s normal retention policy but that culpability and prejudice were not significant and ordered that plaintiff be allowed to question a certain deponent regarding the meeting, but no other sanctions; court found defendants breached duty of preservation as to certain emails, but that prejudice was minimal, and declined to allow forensic examination of the District?s computers, but ordered that defendants bear the reasonable costs of plaintiff?s motion and reply

Nature of Case: wrongful termination

Electronic Data Involved: Emails, audio tape of board meeting

Greene v. Netsmart Techs., No. CV 08-4971(TCP)(AKT), 2011 WL 2225004 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 28, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where there was a delay in plaintiff?s production of relevant evidence and where handwritten notes and certain audio tapes were negligently destroyed but where no unique evidence was ultimately lost because the information was transferred to another source before its destruction, court declined to dismiss the case or to impose an adverse inference but, noting that there was ?clearly a breakdown in communication between Plaintiff and his counsel regarding document preservation and collection,? imposed monetary sanctions equal to defendant?s expenses related to efforts to obtain the relevant evidence, to be shared 50/50 by plaintiff and his counsel; Recommendation adopted by the District Court: 2011 WL 2193399

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Audio Tapes, handwritten notes

Murphy v. Target Corp., No. 09cv1436-BEN (WMc), 2011 WL 2728217 (S.D. Cal. July 12, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where target indicated the requested discovery would require the expenditure of approximately 146 hours of employees? time and cost $4,360 and also argued that the requested discovery would invade employees? privacy and was minimally relevant, court found that the burden to Target did not outweigh the likely benefit, rejected defendant?s arguments regarding privacy and relevance, and granted plaintiff?s motion to compel

Nature of Case: Employment Litigation

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Tiffany (NJ) LLC v. Andrew, No. 10 Civ. 947 (WHP)(HBP), 276 F.R.D. 143 (S.D.N.Y. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Undertaking the appropriate comity analysis and finding that only two of seven factors weighed in favor of plaintiffs and that every other favor weighed in favor of the non-party banks, court denied motion to compel production of banking records of non-party Chinese banks

Nature of Case: Trademark infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Banking records

Orillaneda v. French Culinary Inst., No. 07 Civ. 3206(RJH)(HBP), 2011 WL 4375365 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 19, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court found plaintiff?s request for information related to defendant?s internal search procedures and information systems did not seek relevant information and that plaintiff had not indentified facts that suggested defendant?s document production was deficient and granted defendant?s motion for a protective order stating, ?Discovery concerning these areas may be appropriate in certain circumstances, but it is not appropriate in this case unless and until plaintiff makes a specific showing that defendant?s production is deficient.?

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Information related to defendant?s internal search procedures and information systems

Patterson v. Turner Constr. Co., 931 N.Y.S.2d 311 (N.Y. App. Div. Oct. 27, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where lower court granted motion to compel authorization for all of plaintiff?s records on an online social networking service, appellate court reversed and remanded ?for more specific identification of plaintiff?s Facebook information that is relevant? and noted that if relevant, the content of plaintiff?s account were ?not shielded from discovery merely because plaintiff used the service?s privacy settings to restrict access?

Nature of Case: Personal Injury

Electronic Data Involved: Facebook account

Chevron Corp. v. E-Tech Int., No. 10cv1146-IEG (WMc), 2011 WL 1898908 (S.D. Cal. May 19, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: The court denied defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration of the court?s order allowing forensic examination of the at issue hard drive by a neutral forensic examiner where defendant failed to meet the standard for reconsideration

Electronic Data Involved: Mirror image of hard drive

Innis Arden Golf Club, Inc. v. O?Brien & Gere Eng?rs. Inc., No. CV106006581, 2011 WL 6117908 (Conn. Super. Ct. Nov. 18, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where plaintiff produced 64,350 pages of documents in electronic form without identifying what request the documents were responsive to, the court ordered the parties to cooperate to prepare a load file to assist in defendant?s review and ordered defendant to bear the cost and, where the court agreed with defendants that metadata was an ?important source for the defendants as part of the orderly production? of ESI, the court ordered the parties to cooperate ?in completing the metadata requested by the defendants in an appropriate format? and that ?outside costs, if any, other than copying costs for the metadata [would] also be borne by the defendants?

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, metadata

Cannata v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp., No. 2:1-cv-00068-PMP-VCF, 2011 WL 5598306 (D. Nev. Nov. 17, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Reasoning that the litigation holds were not discoverable but that the details surrounding them were, court ordered defendant to produce ?information surrounding the litigation hold? including when defendants learned of claims, when and to whom litigation hold instructions were sent, what categories of information were identified for preservation , etc.

Electronic Data Involved: Litigation holds

McNulty v. Reddy Ice Holdings, Inc., 2011 116892 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 13, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where defendant preserved 4 terabytes of electronically stored information and 744 boxes of paper documents to be reviewed for production, court cited Rule 26(b)(2)(B) for the proposition that burdensome discovery should be limited but found that plaintiff had good cause for requesting relevant information and ordered the parties to meet and confer to develop search terms or objective search criteria for identifying responsive ESI as well as to develop a search plan for the hard copy

Nature of Case: RICO

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, hard copy

Catagory:Case Summaries