Key Insight: Email stored in government computers does not automatically become public records by virtue of that storage; private or personal email fell outside the statutory definition of “public records”
Nature of Case: Newspaper sued city to release as public record all email sent from or received by two city employees
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Key Insight: Motion to preclude in-house counsel from having access to confidential information produced by competitors denied; court established detailed protective order for handling of confidential information
Nature of Case: Antitrust
Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents
Key Insight: Motion for protective order requiring plaintiff to share the cost of restoring computer files denied; Zubulake judge applied Zubulake factors and concluded that cost-shifting was not appropriate
Nature of Case: Breach of contract class action
Electronic Data Involved: Computer files housed on decommissioned systems
Key Insight: Trial court properly imposed terminating sanctions against plaintiff for egregious discovery abuses, including the deletion of files from hard drives after plaintiff had stipulated that computers and diskettes would not be operated or touched until defendants’ computer expert could examine them
Nature of Case: Breach of contract
Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive, computer files
Key Insight: Court denied plaintiff’s motion to compel defendants to provide affidavits of all employees with access to employment databases and hiring practices, in order to establish whether any documents or data was destroyed, since discovery had been closed for one year and there was no evidence that defendants had destroyed documents
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Hiring and employment database and records
Key Insight: Court did not abuse discretion in denying request for computer tapes where requesting party already possessed all information from tapes on wage cards and were not deprived of any data
Electronic Data Involved: Computer tapes containing wage information
Key Insight: Plaintiff failed to comply with court order by making various misrepresentations about whether all original input files were produced and whether software program changed over time it was used; sanction in form of attorneys’ fees and costs warranted
Nature of Case: Construction litigation
Electronic Data Involved: Software program and input files used to make design calculations
Key Insight: Reversing jury verdict of over $1.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages, court found evidence not legally sufficient to support finding that manager authored offending memorandum; computer experts testified regarding creation of memo, history of revisions and locations of copies
Nature of Case: Former employee sued former employer and managers for libel
Electronic Data Involved: Word document
Key Insight: District court’s refusal to enforce subpoena seeking non-party’s research data affirmed
Nature of Case: Herbicide cancellation proceeding
Electronic Data Involved: Research data regarding toxicity studies of third party
Key Insight: Motion for reconsideration of order granting of summary judgment properly denied where party failed to show that email from repaired server that was produced the day before summary judgment hearing qualified as “newly discovered evidence”
Nature of Case: Action to enforce advertising agreements
Electronic Data Involved: Email
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