Finding Emails “Not Reasonably Accessible” Court Shifts Burden to Show Good Cause and Orders Limited Searching Using Specific Terms
Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3tunes, LLC, 2009 WL 2568431 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 13, 2009)
During the course of discovery in this copyright infringement case, several disputes arose related to the burdensome nature of the parties’ respective requests for production. The court initially “urged the parties” to work cooperatively to develop agreed search terms to be utilized by MP3tunes in its search for responsive electronically stored information (“ESI”). After an initial failure to agree (and MP3tunes unilateral decision to search for ESI using only one search term), the court again directed counsel to cooperate to agree on search terms for MP3tunes use. Again, the parties failed to reach agreement and sought intervention by the court on a number of issues.