December 2007 – Page 21 – Electronic Discovery Law

Friel v. Papa, 829 N.Y.S.2d 569 (N.Y. App. Div. 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Appellate court reversed portion of lower court’s order that granted plaintiffs’ motion to strike defendant’s answer as sanction for spoliation of evidence based on destruction of defendant’s computer hard drive, since plaintiffs inspected the hard drive and obtained the relevant information prior to its destruction and did not demonstrate any prejudice

Nature of Case: Defamation and wrongful termination

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive

DE Techs., Inc. v. Dell, Inc., 2007 WL 128966 (W.D. Va. Jan. 12, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: District judge modified magistrate’s December 4, 2006 sanctions order, allowing Dell to use the 57 disputed documents at trial since it concluded that Dell had provided the documents in a way that fulfilled all of its discovery obligations and DE had not moved to compel production of the documents in a different format

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents produced in searchable database

ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Inc. v. Promised Land Mortgage LLC, 2007 WL 101812 (S.D. Ind. Jan. 8, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Court analyzed application of attorney/client privilege and work product protection to information entered into a database and printed in spreadsheet format, comparing database to a “file cabinet” with “drawers” and “file folders”; court ultimately ordered production of a master spreadsheet with several categories of information redacted

Nature of Case: Contract and tort claims arising from alleged mortgage fraud

Electronic Data Involved: Database, spreadsheets

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. v. Karpiak, 2007 WL 136743 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 12, 2007)

Dec 01 2007

Key Insight: Court adopted magistrate’s recommendation and issued preliminary injunction ordering defendants to return Schwab’s client and business information and to turn over to their counsel any information in electronic form (including but not limited to personal computers, lap top computers, Blackberries, Treos, Palm Pilots, mobile telephones and any other device in, or on, which data can be electronically stored), so that defense counsel could preserve the integrity of such devices and data and immediately make such devices and data available for inspection and duplication by plaintiff’s counsel and/or computer forensic consultants

Nature of Case: Breach of employment agreement

Electronic Data Involved: Trade secret information in electronic form

Archive - December 2007