Motion to Compel – Page 66 – Electronic Discovery Law

Barnes v. District of Columbia, —F. Supp. 2d —, 2012 WL 4101943 (D.D.C. Sept. 19, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where plaintiffs discovered, late in the discovery time period, that defendant?s database production was incomplete but defendant claimed plaintiffs were merely using the wrong query?a query that defendant had not yet produced?the court ordered that defendant produce the relevant query and left open plaintiffs? option to re-file its motion to compel production of additional data if, upon conducting its analysis with the proper query, it nonetheless determined (and could successfully show) that relevant data was missing

Nature of Case: Civil rights claims related to overdetention and strip searching of inmates

Electronic Data Involved: Database content, relevant database query

In re Porsche Cars N. Am., Inc., No. 2:11-md-2233, 2012 WL 4361430 (S.D. Ohio Sept. 25, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court addressed a number of discovery issues related to Plaintiffs? motion to compel production and, among other things: 1) ordered production of the parameters of Defendants? searches where evidence indicated the possibility that Defendants made unilateral decisions to limit their search/production, where the parties disputed the meaning of certain search terms, and where the dearth of emails produced ?weighed in favor? of disclosing the search efforts; and 2) ordered defense counsel to certify that they had completed a reasonable inquiry and provided examples of the sort of information that should be included in such a certification

Nature of Case: Product Liability

Electronic Data Involved: ESI; search parameters; certification of reasonable inquiry

Reid v. Ingerman Smith, LLP, No. CV 2012-0307(ILG)(MDG), 2012 WL 6720752 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 27, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Finding that Plaintiffs? social media content could be relevant to her claims, court ordered photos, communications and posts since January 2008 be produced to Plaintiff?s counsel for review and that relevant portions be produced in accordance with the court?s specific instructions (e.g., photos posted by third parties may be subject to production if relevant, posts and communications by third parties are relevant to the extent they contain observations of the plaintiff, etc.)

Nature of Case: Sexual harassment

Electronic Data Involved: Social media (e.g., Facebook)

FDIC v. Appleton, No. CV-11-476-JAK (PLAx), 2014 WL 10245383 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 29, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where plaintiff produced Relativity database with some 700,000 documents culled from its main server using search terms, and defendants complained there was no apparent logic to database and they could not tell what documents were responsive to what requests, court sided with defendants and ordered plaintiff to create files in Relativity into which it would place documents responsive to each particular request

Nature of Case: Receiver brought action against former officers and directors of failed bank

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Annex Books, Inc. v. City if Indianapolis, No. 1:03-cv-SEB-TAB, 2012 WL 892170 (S.D. Ind. Mar. 14, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where plaintiff was unable to produce requested ?bookkeeping data? in a manner that was usable by defendants despite significant efforts to do so (including retaining two computer forensic services, spending over $9500 on 30 hour of work, and purchasing QuickBooks Pro in an attempt to export the relevant data), the court found that plaintiff had demonstrated that the data was not reasonably accessible but also found that defendant had demonstrated good cause for seeking the information and ordered defendant to bear the costs of additional efforts (noting that it was ?unreasonable? for defendant to insist on production in QuickBooks format when incompatibility had been established)

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Tracy v. NVR, Inc., No. 04-CV-6541L, 2012 WL 1067889 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 26, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where plaintiffs sought to compel production of defendant?s litigation hold and a list of its recipients, court identified the underlying question as whether defendant?s duty to preserve extended to all potential opt-in plaintiffs and found that plaintiffs? significant delay in moving for conditional certification and the indirect nature of the evidence sought distinguished the case from Pippins v. KPMG and that plaintiffs failed to make the necessary preliminary showing of spoliation (which would justify production of the litigation hold notice) because they did not establish ?that documents that should have been preserved? were lost or destroyed; court granted defendant?s motion for sanctions for opt-in plaintiff?s spoliation of hard copy evidence (originals of a calendar indicating her daily activities, two disparate copies of which had been produced) and ordered that she be precluded from testifying as to her daily work activities during a three year period

Nature of Case: FLSA Class action

Electronic Data Involved: litigation hold notice, hard copy calendar

Kregg v Maldonado, —N.Y.S.2d—, 2012 WL 4469935 (N.Y. App. Div. Sept. 28, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where lower court granted defendants? motion to compel the ?entire contents? of plaintiff?s social media accounts, appellate court found the ruling was in error where there was no contention that the contents contradicted plaintiff?s claims and where the appellate court determined the ?proper means? to obtain disclosure of relevant information was a ?narrowly-tailored discovery request seeking only that social-media-based information that relates to the claimed injuries arising from the accident?

Nature of Case: Claims related to injuries from motorcycle accident

Electronic Data Involved: Social media accounts

Soto v. Castlerock Farming & Transport, Inc., 282 F.R.D. 492 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 30, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Where defendant alleged that plaintiffs? requests would result in an undue burden in light of the number of defendant?s employees and the number of farm labor contractors with whom it did business (because of the high volume of records) the court concluded that sampling was ?an appropriate method? to relieve defendant?s burden and, recognizing that even sampling would be burdensome, ordered ?a reduced sample? which would nonetheless ?yield meaningful information? and further ordered defendant to perform a random sample of 50% of payroll and timekeeping records for designated months and years ?unless the parties agree to a different sampling method;? Court denied (in part) third-party?s motion to quash where the information sought was relevant and where the third party presented evidence of burden as to production in hard copy but presented no such evidence as to electronic records which the third party indicated it maintained

Nature of Case: Wage and hours class action

Electronic Data Involved: Payroll and timekeeping records, ESI

In re Estate of Tilimbo, No. 329/M-2007, 2012 WL 3604817 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. Aug. 22, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Court granted access to third party attorney?s computers by a third party vendor for purpose of imaging and searching for documents related to the at-issue deed/transfer but imposed strict conditions, including time limits, and found that if the time limits could not be accommodated, then the burden of inspection was too great

Nature of Case: Action related to contested probate

Electronic Data Involved: computers/hard drives

Custom Hardware Eng?g & Consulting, Inc. v. Dowell, No. 4:10CV00653 ERW, 2011 WL 10496 (E.D. Mo. Jan. 3, 2012)

Dec 01 2012

Key Insight: Relying heavily on Ameriwood Industries v. Liberman, No. 4:06CV524-DJS, 2006 WL 3825291 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 27, 2006), court ordered the discovery of ESI on defendant?s computers in accordance with three-step procedure: 1) imaging of hard drive by forensic expert, 2) recovery of ESI from that image, 3) defense counsel?s review and production of responsive non-privilege information; upon parties? disagreement regarding search terms to be utilized in step three, court rejected defendant?s arguments that plaintiff?s proposed terms would result in an ?unreasonable number of irrelevant results? and the production of privilege information and also rejected defendant?s proposed search terms as too narrow, where defendant proposed that only exact matches, including in capitalization and phrasing, be considered

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement, trade secret misappropria-tion, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and other related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Contents of hard drive

Tag:Motion to Compel