Production of ESI in Paper Format Does Not Comply with Rule 34 Option to Produce ESI in Reasonably Usable Form; Court Orders Re-Production of Certain ESI in Native Format
White v. Graceland Coll. Ctr. for Prof’l Dev. & Lifelong Learning, Inc., 2008 WL 3271924 (D. Kan. Aug. 7, 2008)
In this wrongful termination case, plaintiff moved for an order compelling defendants to, among other things, provide complete information on defendants’ document retention policy and how such policy may have affected ESI responsive to certain discovery requests, and re-produce certain electronic documents in their native format. The court denied the former, but granted the latter request.
Information on Defendants’ Document Retention Policy
Plaintiff’s discovery requests had asked defendants to identify any computer or electronic devices used by its management or human resources department in the years 2003 or 2004, and whether the device had been search or analyzed to determine if any files, notes, or documents related to plaintiff were contained on the device. Plaintiff also asked that defendants identify and produce any documents related to plaintiff found on the device.