Case Summaries – Page 216 – Electronic Discovery Law

Yelton v. PHI, Inc., 2011 WL 6100445 (E.D. La. Dec. 7, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where, following a helicopter crash, defendant hired an engineer to conduct relevant analysis, and where defendant failed to place that engineer under a litigation hold, court found that relevant information was deleted and that the evidence indicated a finding of ?a significant degree of culpability? and ordered an adverse inference and that defendant pay the moving party?s reasonably costs and attorneys? fees related to the spoliation motion

Nature of Case: Claims arising from helicopter crash

Electronic Data Involved: ESI related to engineering analysis

Squeo v Norwalk Hosp. Assoc., No. CV095012548, 2011 WL 7029761 (Conn. Super. Ct. Dec. 16, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: In ongoing case addressing plaintiff?s claims of wrongful death resulting from their son?s release from the hospital and subsequent suicide, the court denied defendant?s motion to compel inspection of parents? personal home computer where parents alleged their son?s use of the computer was limited, where plaintiffs made significant efforts to assist in the retrieval of potentially relevant ESI from third parties including AOL, Facebook, and MySpace, where the requested inspection was unlimited by scope of data range, and where there was only speculation as to the existence of relevant evidence; court?s analysis included consideration of newly adopted revisions to Connecticut Practice Book

Nature of Case: Wrongful death

Electronic Data Involved: Personal computer

State v. Holiday, No. 1 CA-CR 10-0698, 2011 WL 3819844 (Ariz. App. Ct. Aug. 30, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court denied motion to reverse conviction based on state?s failure to preserve evidence despite defendant?s alleged express written request to do so where, because the contents of the audio and visual tapes at issue was unknown, evidence of bad faith was required and where no such evidence was presented; the court indicated: ?The record indicates that the officers were acting in good faith in accordance with their normal practices when the tapes were destroyed.?

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Audio and visual tapes related to arrest, etc.

Bell v. Callaway Partners, LLC, 1:06-CV-1993-CC, 2011 WL 13175079 (N.D. Ga. June 1, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court approved recovery of costs for expenses Defendants incurred for document scanning or imaging given that the parties agreed Defendants would produce documents in electronic format. The Court declined to allow recovery of costs for services and products other than the reproduction of documents such as Bates labeling, OCR formatting, CD creation, CD archival and PDF to TIFF Conversion stating that although such services and products assist in document review, they ?extend beyond mere copying and were unnecessary.?

Nature of Case: Taxable Costs

Datel Holdings, LTD v. Microsoft Corp., No. C-09-05535 EDL, 2011 WL 866993 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 11, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where despite reasonable measures to prevent the production of privileged materials a software glitch resulted in the failure to identify privileged portions of emails that were then produced and where, upon learning of the disclosure, counsel acted promptly to rectify the error, the court found privilege had not been waived by the inadvertent production pursuant to FRE 502; court?s analysis included discussion of meaning of ?inadvertent?

Electronic Data Involved: Email chain

Uhlig LLC v. Shirley, No. 6:08-cv-01208-JMC, 2011 WL 2728445 (D.S.C. July 13, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court granted motion to modify imaging protocol and, after indicating its belief that ?the use of hash values eliminates the need for search limitations,? ordered a protocol modification that included an order for the expert to search for hash values to identify documents present on more than one specified computer/device

Electronic Data Involved: Contents of personal computer, storage devices

M-I LLC v. Stelly, No. H-09-1552, 2015 WL 12896025 (S.D. Tex. Nov. 21, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court ordered forensic inspection of Defendant?s computers where Plaintiff presented evidence that an individual defendant had transferred confidential information to USB devices and Plaintiff suspected it had then been transferred to Defendant?s computer systems and where Plaintiff produced evidence of Defendant?s practice of deleting documents; court ordered inspection undertaken by an independent expert

Electronic Data Involved: Contents of computers

Harmon v. Lighthouse Capital Funding, Inc. (In re Harmon), 2011 WL 302859 (Bankr. S.D. Tex. Jan. 26, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Providing a detailed explanation of defendant?s and counsel?s discovery abuses, including failing to search for internal emails, ignoring plaintiff?s subpoena, and counsel?s offering of ?evasive and unfounded testimony in an effort to rationalize his inexcusable non-production? of certain relevant (and repeatedly requested) documents, among other things, the court denied defendant?s motion for reconsideration and upheld as a sanction the establishment of a particular fact in plaintiff?s favor, namely that Lighthouse did not establish an escrow account in accord with its obligations under its agreement with plaintiffs

Nature of Case: Adversary proceeding in bankruptcy

Electronic Data Involved: Emails, bank statements

U.S. Holdings, Inc. v. Suntrust Bank, No. 09-23222-CIV, 2011 WL 1102822 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 23, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where Bates labeling documents already produced in native format would have required defendants to convert the documents to an alternative format and would have cost between $16,000 and $75,000, the court denied plaintiff?s motion to compel Bates labeling, despite the requirement to do so as laid out in the Discovery Practices Handbook appended to the local rules in the Southern District of Florida

Nature of Case: Breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, fraud in the inducement, etc.

Electronic Data Involved: ESI in native format

Ingersoll v. Farmland Foods, Inc., No. 10-6046-CV-SJ-FJG, 2011 WL 1131129 (W.D. Mo. Mar. 28, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court denied plaintiff?s motion to compel defendant?s production of its litigation hold where such letters are generally not discoverable absent evidence of spoliation; resolving dispute related to how to initially proceed with discovery of ESI, court approved defendant?s proposal to utilize search terms for the identification of potentially responsive information and to sample those results to determine the success of the terms; court also ordered that plaintiff be provided access to the search term ?hits? so that ?both sides may have an opportunity to determine the efficacy of the sampling.?

Nature of Case: Employment claims related to payment for ?donning and doffing?

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Catagory:Case Summaries