Key Insight: Plaintiff sanctioned $10,000 for failing to preserve or search email of certain persons; key word search to be narrowed
Nature of Case: Business sued competitors for defamation and unfair competition
Electronic Data Involved: Email, databases (scope of key word search)
Key Insight: Court entered preliminary injunction prohibiting defendants from, among other things, deleting, destroying or altering any document, email or computer drive containing any ProPath or ProPath related information, and required defendants to segregate said items into a confidential file not to be used in their business
Nature of Case: Contract breach, misappropriation of confidential information, breach of fiduciary duty
Electronic Data Involved: Email and other electronic files
Key Insight: Government’s past evidentiary failures in other similar litigation appeared to be so pervasive and systematic as to provide ample support for issuance of a document preservation order in this case
Nature of Case: Tribe sued government for mismanagement of trust accounts
Electronic Data Involved: Documents stored in various media related to parties’ claims
Key Insight: No abuse of discretion for trial court to strike defendant’s answer and enter judgment for plaintiff on issue of liability, where defendant reformatted computer’s hard drive, effectively erasing any information the computer may have contained, a day before surrendering it for court-ordered inspection
Nature of Case: Dispute between former business partners
Electronic Data Involved: Laptop
Key Insight: Based on in camera review, court granted defendant’s motion to compel based on the crime/fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, ordered production of other documents on same subject matter and further ruled that discovery would be allowed regarding documents produced and on the issue of sanctions
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email, backup tapes
Key Insight: Plaintiff wife ordered to stop using the couple’s laptop computer and deposit it with the clerk of court, so that it may be marked as evidence and stored in court’s vault; order extended to all floppy disks, CDs, etc; neither party to be allowed to access the laptop, rather, it may only be accessed by a recognized computer expert under oath testifying from the witness stand in open court
Nature of Case: Divorce proceeding
Electronic Data Involved: Laptop
Key Insight: Court granted emergency motion to compel, requiring defendants to appear for deposition and produce computers for inspection by plaintiff’s computer forensics expert; at subsequent bench trial, in light of defendants’ deletion of data from computers after litigation commenced, repeated defragmentation of hard drives prior to court-ordered inspections, and decision not to offer any testimony to explain same, court drew adverse inference; court awarded plaintiff $100,000 as royalty for defendants’ unauthorized use of trade secrets, and $150,000 in punitive damages for the willful and malicious misappropriation of trade secrets and attempted cover-up
Nature of Case: Manufacturer sued former employee and competitor for misappropriation of trade secrets and related torts
Electronic Data Involved: Software and databases containing sales and customer information
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
Key Insight: Brief reference in footnote 9 to court’s previous oral ruling enjoining defendant from destroying or erasing any files from her home computer and directing defendant to give the computer to her lawyer so as to preserve potential evidence
Nature of Case: Employer sued former employee alleging she posted false job postings on web site and caused unsolicited job applications and pornographic email to be sent to employer
Electronic Data Involved: Home computer
Key Insight: Defense counsel’s failure to produce computer records and to retain all drafts of settlement documents reflected lack of diligence rather than intentional effort to abuse discovery process; testimony of witness barred and $500 awarded as sanctions
Nature of Case: Sexual harassment
Electronic Data Involved: Computer records
Copyright © 2026, K&L Gates LLP. All Rights Reserved.