Case Summaries – Page 409 – Electronic Discovery Law

Advantacare Health Partners, LP v. Access IV, 2004 WL 1837997 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 17, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court denied motion for default judgment but granted motion for an adverse inference instruction and $20,000 in monetary sanctions where, in advance of court-ordered inspection, defendants deleted from their computers numerous electronic files which had been copied from former employer’s computer systems prior to their resignations, and, after the inspection, defendants failed to comply with court’s order that they delete all of plaintiffs’ files from their computers

Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets and related torts

Electronic Data Involved: Proprietary information in electronic form

Braxton v. Farmer’s Ins. Group, 209 F.R.D. 651 (N.D. Ala. 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Non-party subpoena issued by plaintiff to insurance agents for email and electronic documents touching on, relating to or concerning use of consumer credit reports in setting homeowners’ insurance premiums quashed as unduly burdensome, in absence of showing that defendant’s production of such materials was inadequate

Nature of Case: Class action alleging that insurer violated Fair Credit Reporting Act

Electronic Data Involved: Email and documents in electronic format

Comm’r of Labor v Ward, 580 S.E.2d 432 (Table, Text in WESTLAW) 2003 WL 21267941 (N.C.Ct. App. 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Where defendants intentionally and willfully refused to comply with court’s discovery orders regarding electronically stored information, sanctions in form of striking defendants’ answer, preventing them from defending against plaintiff’s claims, and granting default judgment was not an abuse of discretion

Nature of Case: Wage and Hour Act violations

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic data

In re Fagnant, 2004 WL 2944126 (Bankr. D.N.H. Dec. 13, 2004

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Where defendant acted in good faith in printing and delivering to his counsel a copy of his computerized general ledger, but counsel failed to disclose it until the eve of trial, court denied plaintiff’s request for discovery sanction precluding introduction of general ledger at trial, but awarded monetary sanctions against defense counsel

Nature of Case: Adversary proceeding in bankruptcy court

Electronic Data Involved: Printout from computerized general ledger

Grill v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 2004 WL 2314640 (W.D. Wash. Oct. 7, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Finding that work product protection did not apply to contested emails, court ordered their production

Nature of Case: Disabled individual alleged violations of ADA

Electronic Data Involved: Email between plaintiff and third party

Jackson v. Microsoft Corp., 211 F.R.D. 423 (W.D. Wash. 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiff’s misconduct and discovery abuse (including obtaining email and proprietary information of employer, paying for such material, copying and using material to prepare case, and engaging in elaborate series of lies during depositions and evidentiary hearings re same) warranted dismissal with prejudice

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: CDs and laptop computer hard drive

In re Livent, Inc. Noteholders Sec. Litig., 2003 WL 23254 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 2, 2003)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: After defendant accounting firm produced only 25 pages of email from one custodian plus 14 emails from other employees, and plaintiffs voiced suspicions that production was incomplete, court directed defendant to fax to plaintiffs a written explanation of all the steps taken to find responsive emails; as to any further steps, court directed parties to read Magistrate Judge Francis’ opinion in Rowe Entertainment, then meet and confer re eight Rowe factors

Nature of Case: Securities litigation

Electronic Data Involved: Email

MPCT Solutions Corp. v. Methe, 1999 WL 495115 (N.D. Ill. July 2, 1999)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Sanctions in form of preliminary injunction preventing defendant from contacting MPCT clients granted, after defendant violated preservation order by deleting documents from laptop and defragmenting hard drive, thus preventing the recovery of deleted data

Nature of Case: Enforcement of non-competition agreement

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents stored on laptop

Portis v. City of Chicago, 2004 WL 2812084 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 7, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court clarified its July 7, 2004 order and explained how it intended the costs of compiling the database would be calculated: the number of hours plaintiffs’ computer expert and the paralegals spent on the project, multiplied by their respective hourly billing rates, plus other costs, if any; court quashed defendants’ discovery requests seeking information regarding the salaries paid to computer expert and the paralegals

Nature of Case: Class action for civil rights violations

Electronic Data Involved: Database compiled at direction of plaintiffs’ attorneys

In re St. Jude Med., Inc., Silzone Heart Valves Prod. Liab. Litig., 2002 WL 341019 (D. Minn. Mar. 1, 2002)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court entered supplementary pretrial preservation order to address “newly created documents” and backups of electronic data; regarding the latter, the order prohibits “the routine erasure of computerized information potentially relevant to the subject matter of this litigation,” but states that “The full and complete back-up of any server or other computer on a periodic basis (e.g. monthly) shall relieve the party of any obligation to maintain any interim backups of the same server or other computer.”

Nature of Case: Product liability

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic data and email, and backups of electronic data

Catagory:Case Summaries