Key Insight: Court denied as overly-broad and intrusive defendant’s request that its forensic expert be permitted to make complete forensic copy of plaintiff’s File Server and FTP server; court instead would allow forensic expert to make forensic copy of relevant folders on plaintiff’s FTP server
Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets
Electronic Data Involved: Metadata
Key Insight: Court sustained objection to request seeking “[a]ny and all electronically stored information, documents, reports, logs and/or memorandums contained in any and all of the electronic databases and/or computer systems of Allegheny County Jail, Allegheny Correctional Health Services, Inc., Bruce Dixon, and Dana Phillips” as overbroad, unreasonably cumulative, and unduly burdensome, since the request imposed no limits (time or otherwise) on ESI requested; court allowed plaintiffs to revise request to include reasonable limitations and serve it by certain date
Nature of Case: Wrongful death
Electronic Data Involved: Unspecified ESI
Key Insight: Ruling on various disputed discovery requests, court overruled insurer?s overbroad and unduly burdensome objections to interrogatory seeking information about similar claims made against insurer within last ten years, and agreed with defendant that it was not necessary to rely on computer retrieval of relevant information, but on information provided by employees, and that there may be less expensive means of determining the existence of such information: ?For example, an e-mail to all Liberty Mutual employees asking if they recall any such claims or cases in the last ten years is a simple, inexpensive means of discovering whether any claims were ever made in Mississippi. Liberty Mutual has a duty to at least attempt to determine if information responsive to this interrogatory exists, if not by computerized search of files (a general search of a computer data base surely would be a start), then at least by inquiry of employees who may have relevant, discoverable information. At a minimum, a good faith effort is required.?
Nature of Case: Insurance coverage
Electronic Data Involved: Information regarding similar claims made against insurer
Key Insight: District judge upheld as neither clearly erroneous nor contrary to law magistrate judge?s order for forensic imaging of defendants’ computers, where defendants had refused to provide documents plaintiff requested, providing only “sample” appraisals, and where relevant appraisals and software used to generate appraisals resided in computer and were relevant to parties’ claims and defenses
Nature of Case: Fraud, RICO and breach of fiduciary duty claims
Electronic Data Involved: Appraisals and software used to generate appraisals
Key Insight: Where there was no proof that plaintiff intentionally destroyed or withheld evidence, plaintiff’s assistant testified that she searched his computers, and there was an adequate explanation for non-production of two items of correspondence, appellate court found trial court had improperly directed the cloning of plaintiff’s computer hard drives and reversed lower court’s order
Nature of Case: Breach of fiduciary duty
Electronic Data Involved: Computer hard drives
Key Insight: Where information maintained in electronic database was necessarily in a form that was not identical to report prepared on basis of that data and produced in discovery, and defendant did not claim that database was “not reasonably accessible,” court ordered defendant to produce or make otherwise available that part of electronic database that evidenced the issuance of certificates during relevant time frame
Nature of Case: Action among gem grading laboratories concerning the right to use certain trademarks in the U.S. and the right to issue grading certificates bearing those marks
Electronic Data Involved: Database containing information used to prepare report produced by defendant in discovery
Key Insight: Where plaintiff supported class certification motion with affidavits prepared by paralegals who conducted interviews with potential class members, court found that such affirmative use of work product opened door to defendant’s attempt to verify accuracy of investigation, to discover flaws, and to obtain if possible information that could impeach paralegals’ testimony; court ordered plaintiff to produce memo to file itemizing questions to be propounded to interviewees, completed form questionnaires with handwritten notations used in survey, and memoranda or handwritten notations generated by affiants during course of survey or thereafter to memorialize factual information obtained; database itself retained work product protection and plaintiff was not required to produce entire printout of database beyond those portions that plaintiffs intended to rely upon and had been produced
Nature of Case: Class action brought by passengers who had suffered symptoms associated with a spread of Norovirus
Electronic Data Involved: Epi Info database, questionnaires and underlying relevant data
Key Insight: Where degree and substantiality of similarity between parties’ respective source codes was at issue, court found that the WideBand source code was directly relevant to whether copying had occurred and ordered the Wideband defendants to produce the source code in its entirety
Nature of Case: Copyright infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Source code
Key Insight: Court applied balancing test and found that plaintiff?s inadvertent production of single privileged email on CD among 22,000 pages of documents did not effect waiver given expedited nature of discovery, scope of documents produced, limited extent of disclosure and lack of any demonstrable prejudice to defendants
Nature of Case: Trademark infringement, cybersquatting, unfair competition, unfair trade practices
Electronic Data Involved: Privileged email
Key Insight: Noting that case involved the operation of a government office, and images were contained within a government computer where there could be no expectation of privacy (particularly not when it is alleged that images were already seen by plaintiff and others), and pornographic images were clearly relevant if not ?res gestae,? court overruled County?s objections and ordered County to (1) provide plaintiff with copies of all of pornographic images from criminal investigation that were in its custody and control; and (2) allow plaintiff’s counsel and a computer forensics specialist access to the hard drive of supervisor?s work computer, so that all responsive images could be copied in electronic format for plaintiff’s counsel
Nature of Case: Plaintiff alleged she was required to work in a sexually hostile environment, and specifically that she was exposed to extreme, graphic and debasing computer/internet pornography contained in her supervisor’s office computer
Electronic Data Involved: Pornographic images stored on supervisor’s office computer
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