Key Insight: Plaintiff’s misconduct and discovery abuse (including obtaining email and proprietary information of employer, paying for such material, copying and using material to prepare case, and engaging in elaborate series of lies during depositions and evidentiary hearings re same) warranted dismissal with prejudice
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: CDs and laptop computer hard drive
Key Insight: No abuse of discretion to dismiss suit with prejudice and impose sanctions against plaintiff under Rule 11, where it was determined that plaintiff had relied on falsified email and letters to support her discrimination claims
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination based on race, sex and ethnic origin
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Key Insight: Despite dismissal of all plaintiffs’ claims and entry of final judgment on the merits, court retained ancillary jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions for spoliation of electronic evidence for purpose of holding a hearing before ruling on the motion
Nature of Case: Securities class action
Electronic Data Involved: Electronic evidence
Key Insight: Granting motion to compel disclosure of all relevant computerized data under former Rule 26(a)(1), court observed: “As used by the advisory committee, ‘computerized data and other electronically-recorded information’ includes, but is not limited to: voice mail messages and files, back-up voice mail files, e-mail messages and files, backup e-mail files, deleted e-mails, data files, program files, backup and archival tapes, temporary files, system history files, web site information stored in textual, graphical or audio format, web site log files, cache files, cookies, and other electronically-recorded information.”
Nature of Case: Copyright infringement (posting of copyrighted photographs on web site)
Electronic Data Involved: All voice mails, email, web sites, web pages, and other relevant electronic data
Key Insight: Although plaintiff’s production of relevant email and other documents in electronic form after the close of discovery demonstrated lack of good faith effort to produce all requested discovery in timely manner, sanctions were not warranted
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email and other documents in electronic form
Key Insight: EPA violated preliminary injunction that prohibited destruction of potentially responsive documents by reformatting hard drives and erasing or overwriting backup tapes containing potentially responsive email; EPA held in civil contempt and ordered to pay plaintiff’s reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred as a result of EPA’s contumacious conduct
Nature of Case: FOIA action
Electronic Data Involved: Hard drives and email stored on backup tapes
Key Insight: Court granted motion for monetary sanctions against defendant for violating TRO by failing to return proprietary information and data to plaintiff, but reserved judgment on amount of award pending further proceedings
Nature of Case: Employer sued former employee for misappropriation of trade secrets and related torts
Electronic Data Involved: Database containing sales and customer information, email, laptop, zip disk
Key Insight: Trial court erred in not dismissing defendants’ counterclaim and third party complaint as sanction for spoliation of evidence — contrary to court’s orders, defendants purged databases and produced backup tapes that were compromised and unusable
Nature of Case: Plaintiff sought declaratory judgment that it was not in default of license agreement
Electronic Data Involved: Computer databases and backup tapes
Key Insight: Finding no bad faith in defendant’s failure to preserve email since defendants simply persevered in their normal document retention practices, court nonetheless ruled that plaintiff would be allowed to prove the facts reflecting the non-retention of email and argue to the trier of fact that this destruction of evidence, in addition to other proof offered at trial, warranted certain inferences
Nature of Case: Trademark infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Key Insight: Plaintiff’s failure to preserve computer printouts and telephone lists loaded onto Palm Pilot did not warrant an adverse inference instruction, but did warrant monetary sanctions of $28,271.75 to be paid by party (not his attorney) to compensate the victim for attorneys’ fees and expenses arising both from additional discovery required to locate equivalent information by alternative means and from the motion practice necessitated by the spoliation
Nature of Case: Action seeking monetary damages and specific performance of stock option agreement
Electronic Data Involved: Hard copy material loaded onto Palm Pilot
Copyright © 2026, K&L Gates LLP. All Rights Reserved.