Key Insight: Court denied motion for spoliation sanctions absent evidence of fraud or bad faith and where the court did not find sufficient evidence of prejudice
Nature of Case: Breach of employment agreement
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
Key Insight: Court granted motion for sanctions and imposed permissive adverse inferences as to two categories of information which the court found had been intentionally shredded and/or deleted despite a duty to preserve
Nature of Case: Civil rights class action
Electronic Data Involved: Emails, ESI
Key Insight: Where the general manager of the defendant Red Roof Inn claimed to have attempted to preserve video surveillance footage by asking for it to be copied but alleged that she later discovered that the footage was not copied and that the original footage had been automatically recorded over by that time, the court found, ?based on overwhelming evidence of Red Roof?s cavalier attitude toward its discovery obligations,? that defendant?s spoliation was grossly negligent and ordered an adverse inference and that defendant pay plaintiff?s reasonable attorneys? fees and costs associated with the preparation for the motion for sanctions
Nature of Case: Unlawful detention and related claims
Electronic Data Involved: Surveillance footage
Key Insight: For ?discovery misconduct? including failing to issue a litigation hold; admitted deletion of documents; and failure to promptly search certain repositories for responsive information, including a computer utilized by an individual defendant at an unrelated corporation for which he was an officer (but which he used for matters unrelated to that corporation, including for correspondence related to the underlying lawsuits) and the computer of the same individual?s secretary (albeit at yet a third company which was also a defendant), the court ordered monetary sanctions ?to reimburse Plaintiff?s expenses costs, and reasonable attorney?s fees?
Nature of Case: Bankruptcy
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
Key Insight: Upon reconsideration of prior order awarding sanctions against defendants, court found that additional evidence indicated culpability on the part of defense counsel that justified joint and several liability for sanctions; defendants? discovery violations included willful failure to produce certain documents and the destruction of other ESI; counsels? discovery failures included defense counsels? failure to adequately communicate with opposing counsel resulting in court intervention and failure to comply with court orders; as sanction, court ordered defendants and counsel to pay specifically delineated portions of plaintiffs? attorneys? fees and costs
Nature of Case: trademark infringement, unfair competition, and related claims
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
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.
Key Insight: Despite noting that it was ?undisputed? that plaintiffs? witnesses did not modify their practice of ?deleting most emails within a short time of receiving them? even after they reasonably anticipated litigation, the court declined to impose an adverse inference where the record supported a finding that the witnesses ?destroyed the emails in the ordinary course of business unmotivated by any bad faith.?
Nature of Case: Fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty
Electronic Data Involved: Emails
Key Insight: For defendant?s failure to preserve highly relevant surveillance footage in bad faith (as evidenced by the loss of three copies of the tape and the deliberate recording over of the master tape) which resulted in prejudice to the plaintiff, the court ordered an adverse inference instruction that the information would have been unfavorable to defendant and precluded defendant from offering the testimony of witnesses who viewed the footage prior to its loss as to what the footage depicted
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination/violation of Americans with Disabilities Act
Electronic Data Involved: Original and three copies of relevant surveillance footage
Key Insight: Addressing defendant?s motion for sanctions, the court found that defendant?s CEO and outside counsel ?should have done more to ensure that relevant evidence was preserved? and that defendant had been prejudiced where certain documents had been lost due to plaintiff?s reliance on a verbal ?100 percent document retention policy? (i.e. the company deleted nothing) and because of plaintiff?s failure to inform its accountants of the need to preserve, but declined to impose drastic sanctions and ordered that the jury be informed of plaintiff?s failure to preserve certain relevant information
Nature of Case: Allegations of anticompetitive acts
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
Key Insight: Although the allegedly spoliated information was likely relevant, court denied motion for spoliation sanctions where plaintiff?s pre-litigation letter expressing dissatisfaction with defendant?s work did not put defendants on notice that the at-issue data was relevant and should be preserved and where there was no evidence that defendant intended to destroy the data but rather that the information was lost because the computer on which it was stored did not save the information and instead deleted it before it began a new job; court also noted that defendants had provided the requested information upon plaintiff?s request prior to filing of litigation
Nature of Case: Breach of Contract
Electronic Data Involved: WinOPS data
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