Finding Defendants’ Proposed Search Protocol “Fundamentally Misguided,” Court Creates Own and Orders Search of “Any Depository” that May Contain the Information Sought
D’Onofrio v. SFX Sports Group, Inc., 254 F.R.D. 129 (D.D.C. Oct. 2008)
In this gender discrimination case, the court held an evidentiary hearing to address plaintiff’s concerns regarding outstanding discovery. Plaintiff claimed that defendants had destroyed her former computer, which contained potentially relevant information, and had not produced all of the electronic information she requested. At the hearing, a representative of the defendants explained that plaintiff’s computer was “scrapped after he decided that it could not be used and also searched for items requested by plaintiff.” A representative also testified regarding additional searches performed to respond to plaintiff’s requests and explained the “Legato system,” a server which held a back up of plaintiff’s mailbox from 2004, made under order of the Justice Department in a separate matter. Defendants agreed to allow plaintiff’s expert to perform an in-person search of their servers, but the parties were unable to agree upon a protocol to guide that search.