Key Insight: Repeated discovery obligation failures merited district court sanctions
Nature of Case: trademark infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Written discovery responses
Keywords: Missed discovery deadlines
Key Insight: whether counsel assumed responsibility for ensuring a comprehensive search was conducted
Nature of Case: employment discrimination
Keywords: comprehensive search, litigation hold, guidance, reasonable inquiry
Key Insight: No spoliation because no showing that “either Defendants or their counsel acted” with an “intent to deprive” merely that there was “confusion and ineptitude.”
Nature of Case: breach of licensing agreement
Electronic Data Involved: business laptop and several external drives
Keywords: intent to deprive, spoliation, evaluate the reasonableness of preservation efforts.
Key Insight: petitioner’s motion for contempt, subpoena enforcement
Nature of Case: subpoena duces tecum issued by US Dept. of Labor to Respondent, a roofing company. Workplace safety violations and follow-up inspections..
Electronic Data Involved: text and email messages
Keywords: subpoena duces tecum, failure to take reasonable steps to comply with the order
Key Insight: Discovery had been completed in September 2016. In February 2017, at deposition, additional on-going claims were presented. Court specified search terms to use against 3 custodians for the additional time frame.
Nature of Case: American with Disabilities; Employment Discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: E-mail
Keywords: Search Terms, Supplemental Production; Additional Discovery
Key Insight: Sanction and adverse inference inappropriate because nothing lost/destroyed was highly probative
Nature of Case: Excessive force
Electronic Data Involved: emails, reports
Keywords: adverse inference
Key Insight: Slow responses to discovery; withholding information; Discovery fraud
Nature of Case: Personal Injury
Electronic Data Involved: Not specifically stated “documents”
Keywords: Attorney Fees; Bad Faith; Withholding information; Misconduct; Sanctions must be compensatory not punitive; Court’s inherent authority; But-For test
Key Insight: Spoliation sanctions for missing insurance photos premature before clarifying deposition from party
Nature of Case: insurance coverage litigation
Electronic Data Involved: photos
Keywords: amended declaration inadequate, IT protocol
Key Insight: ESI “willfully discarded or deleted”
Nature of Case: Alleged violations of the electronic Communications Privacy Act against defendants accused of stealing plaintiff’s clients and confidential information.
Electronic Data Involved: defendant’s iPhone, laptop and external hard drive
Keywords: adverse-inference instruction, forensic examination of a flash drive.
Key Insight: All data stored as picture files therefore unsearchable
Nature of Case: Employment Discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: “picture files”; text messages; email; ESI; hard drives; database
Keywords: Cost shifting; Inaccessible; data stored as picture files; searchablity
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