Court Declines to Order Re-production in Electronic Format; Finds No Waiver of Privilege from Inadvertent Disclosure
Laethem Equip. Co. v. Deere & Co., 2008 WL 4997932 (E.D. Mich. Nov. 21, 2008)
In this case involving breach of contract and other claims, the court ordered the defendant to return inadvertently produced, privileged, electronically stored information (“ESI”) to the plaintiffs, and ordered the parties to secure all relevant ESI in their possession and file a written outline of the secured data (“data log”) with opposing counsel and the court. Upon receipt of plaintiffs’ data log, defendant filed a motion to compel the production of all of the data outlined therein, to compel an explanation regarding allegedly spoliated, missing, or altered documents, for an order that all privilege as to the inadvertently produced documents had been waived as a result of plaintiffs’ “misconduct”, and for a finding that plaintiffs were in violation of the civil rules and a prior order of the court, among other things. Some of these issues were referred to the magistrate judge for hearing and determination with all other issues reserved for a future hearing.