Archive - January 13, 2005

Report from the First Public Hearing on Proposed Changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Addressing E-Discovery

Jan 13 2005

The first of three scheduled public hearings regarding proposed changes to the FRCP addressing electronic discovery took place in San Francisco January 12, 2005. Fifteen members of the legal community took advantage of the opportunity to publicly voice their views of the proposed amendments.

The diverse group included in-house counsel from corporations such as Microsoft and Intel, private practitioners – including both plaintiff and defense attorneys, and a computer forensic specialist. Participants commented on what they saw as the pros and cons of a series of proposed amendments to the FRCP designed to provide additional guidance to the courts and litigants engaged in the ever-growing area of e-discovery.

Defendant’s Use of “Evidence Eliminator” Software Warrants Adverse Inference

Jan 13 2005

DirecTV, Inc. v. Borow, 2005 WL 43261 (N.D.Ill. Jan. 6, 2005)

In this case, the court granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiff DirecTV and against defendant Randy Borow on claims stemming from Borow’s unauthorized use of plaintiff’s satellite television signal. Summary judgment was warranted, in part, because defendant had not offered sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption that arose from his destruction of relevant evidence.