Key Insight: Attorney’s fees for unduly burdensome third party subpoenas are compensated
Nature of Case: Trusts and estates
Electronic Data Involved: Emails
Keywords: third party, subpoena, attorney’s fees, reimbursement, cost shifting
Key Insight: Discovery costs must be proportional to the amount in controversy ($20 million in dispute allows for at least $13,000 in discovery costs)
Nature of Case: Contract breach
Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents/communications
Keywords: Backup tapes, proportionality, catastrophic failure
Key Insight: Courts should be less involved in discovery dispute regarding ESI despite recent FRCP amendments
Nature of Case: Labor Standards Class Action
Electronic Data Involved: third party electronic payroll data
Keywords: FRCP 2015 amendments, electronically readable fomat
Key Insight: motion to compel production of documents including confidential patient information
Nature of Case: patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: database maintained by non-party
Keywords: undue burden and expense on a non-party, subpoena duces tecum
Key Insight: Despite previously ordering production of ESI, court considered motion for protective order by defendant after the ?enormity of the task became apparent? and granted the motion in light of defendant?s presentation of evidence showing that responding to the at-issue requests would take 8,982 hours of work at a cost of $230,000, if accomplished by contract staff; court indicated that it found ?merit? in Defendant?s proposal to provide a random sample of the at-issue information ?from a standpoint of accuracy,? reasoning that ?human error would be a realistic factor? if Defendant were to employ contract workers to conduct a manual review of all of the records under time constraints
Electronic Data Involved: Electronic hospital records
Key Insight: The Stipulated Protective Order is too broad and is not consistent with the RCP
Nature of Case: Transgender/sex employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: confidential documents, Stipulated Protective Order
Keywords: Stipulated Protective Order, confidential, Rules of Civil Procedure
Key Insight: mere statement that disclosure would provide competitors with advantage doesn’t satisfy elements of trade secret.
Nature of Case: medical negligence
Electronic Data Involved: electronic health record (EHR) system
Keywords: confidential and proprietary trade secrets, protective 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: Limiting the scope of discovery requests for full social media account history
Nature of Case: personal injury
Electronic Data Involved: Facebook account history
Keywords: social media, Facebook, proportionality, burdensome discovery
Key Insight: Discovery of these things was blocked, since they were ruled to be only marginally relevant compared to the time and expense it would take to produce them.
Nature of Case: Employment Discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: emails and text messages
Keywords: relevance, marginal relevance, time and expense
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