Format Of Production – Page 7 – Electronic Discovery Law

Thorne Research Inc. v. Atl. Pro-Nutrients, Inc., No. 2:13-cv-784, 2016 WL 1122863 (D. Utah Mar. 22, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Defendant sought production of a complete copy of a Microsoft Access database utilized by patent?s co-inventor to input his formulas to assess the legitimacy of the claimed conception date. Plaintiff argued the database did not ?maintain metadata like word processing or spreadsheet programs do? and also that the database, maintained by a third-party, contained proprietary information of non-parties. Defendant maintained the stipulated protective order would protect the third-party proprietary information and that Plaintiffs had not argued that they would incur ?undue hardship or expense? in producing the database with its metadata. The court granted Defendant?s motion to compel production of the database and metadata for forensic analysis.

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Microsoft Access Database

Kissing Camels Surgery Center, LLC v. Centura Health Corp., No. 12-cv-03012-WJM-NYW, 2016 WL 277721 (D. Colo. Jan. 22, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Where Plaintiffs objected to Defendants? ?duplicative? requests and claimed they had already produced responsive documents but provided Defendants with no guidance as to where such documents could be found within the voluminous production, the court acknowledged that it would ?ordinarily? conclude that Plaintiffs had no obligation to identify responsive documents but, citing the volume of data at issue, the ?asymmetry of information regarding the production between Plaintiffs,? the time the case had been pending, and the fact that additional discovery would be required, the court concluded that Plaintiff should provide additional information and ordered that Defendants would be permitted to identify ten categories of requested documents that Plaintiffs claimed to be duplicative and that Plaintiffs must then identify documents responsive to those requests

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Sky Med. Supply Inc. v. SCS Support Claim Serv. Inc., No. 12- 6383, 2016 WL 4703656 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 7, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Magistrate judge denied defendant?s motion to compel plaintiff to organize and label its document production ?so that it corresponds to the categories in the request? because the discovery documents were immediately available for inspection at plaintiff counsel?s office in electronic format already organized, identifiable, and searchable by claim number; defendants needing only to execute claims number searches to identify documents. Thus, the court concluded that unless and until an inspection is undertaken and shown to be unduly burdensome, the plaintiff?s offer to permit inspection of database comports with ?both the letter and spirit of rule 34.?

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Midwest Feeders, Inc. v. The Bank of Franklin (S.D. Mississippi, 2016)

Jul 19 2016

Key Insight: if images of hard drives is sufficient prodcution of the hard drives themselves

Nature of Case: Fraud, conversion of instruments, failure to exercise ordinary care

Electronic Data Involved: all computers midwest obtained and the information on those computers at the time they were obtained

Keywords: hard drives, forensic imaging

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Gade v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (District of Vermont, 2016)

Jun 06 2016

Key Insight: When the productions of underlying information (exact Excel formulas in this case) may disclose proprietary information, a supplemental disclosure explaining the underlying reasons may be a suitable replacement

Nature of Case: Automobile insurance coverage

Electronic Data Involved: Excel spreadsheet formulas

Keywords: Excel, formulas, moot, metadata, award of sanctions, expenses, fees

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LBBW Luxemburg S.A. v. Wells Fargo Sec. LLC (Southern District of New York, 2016)

Mar 29 2016

Key Insight: Non-responsive documents should not be produced, even if redacted, and privilege or some sort of reason must be asserted for redactions to be proper

Nature of Case: Fraud

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents generally

Keywords: redactions, bloomberg, non-responsive

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Stormo v. City of Sioux Falls, No. 12-04057 (D. S.D. Feb. 19, 2016)

Feb 19 2016

Key Insight: Providing a document index is not overly burdensome. Production of metadata cannot be compelled without showing that metadata is relevant..

Nature of Case: violation of civil rights as a landowner

Electronic Data Involved: metadata, electronically stored data, document index

Keywords: adequacy of production, metadata relevancy

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SEC v. CKB168 Holdings Inc. (E.D.N.Y., 2016)

Feb 02 2016

Key Insight: are the defendants acting in bad faith by not confirming that evidence doesn’t exist or was it not preserved, in that case is it sanctionable

Nature of Case: violation of Securities act, violation of the exchange act and rule 10b-5, unregistered securities offerings

Electronic Data Involved: “back office data” information as to whether defendants explored public offering

Keywords: bad faith, sanctions, spoliation, public offering

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Granados v. Traffic Bar and Restaurant, Inc. (S.D.N.Y., 2015)

Dec 30 2015

Key Insight: if sanctions can be granted for inconsistent and incomplete response from opposing party

Nature of Case: violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law

Electronic Data Involved: initial interrogatories and verifications

Keywords: spoliation, sanctions, default judgment, defunct business, unreachable party

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Lutzeier v. Citigroup Inc., No. 4:14-cv-00183-RLW, 2015 WL 430196 (E.D. Mo. Feb 2, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Addressing Plaintiff?s motion to add custodians, the court granted the motion, in part, but declined to compel the addition of high-level executives absent a showing that they had ?unique or personal knowledge of the subject matter that warrants their information?; Court found that the current ?search criteria adequately ensure[d]? the production of relevant documents and declined Plaintiff?s request for additional search terms except the phrase ?consent order? where confusion existed as to the existence of ?other? consent orders relevant to the case; where plaintiff was unsatisfied with Defendant?s production of more than 46,000 documents ?without providing any indication as to which documents are responsive to which of Plaintiff?s fifty-eight (58 ) enumerated requests,? but where the defendant represented that their production was ?fully text-searchable and contain[s] metadata permitting Plaintiff to identify, among other things, the custodians of the document, recipients, date and other key information,? the court found that the production was ?in a reasonably useable form or forms and/or the production is searchable, sortable and paired with relevant metadata? and thus was compliant with the parties? ESI agreement and with Rule 34

Nature of Case: Wrongful discharge; Age Discrimination; Dodd Frank; Sarbanes-Oxley

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Tag:Format Of Production