December 1, 2011 – Page 6 – Electronic Discovery Law

LG Elecs. U.S.A., Inc., v. Whirlpool Corp., No. 08 C 0242, 2011 WL 5008425 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 20, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Regarding recovery of costs for electronic discovery, court acknowledged that it was ?undisputable that electronic discovery costs are available under Section 1920(4)? but that there was ?scant legal authority? providing guidance on the matter and noted that it was difficult for the court to determine the reasonableness of the costs at issue and thus awarded half of the requested costs equaling $35,292.56

Nature of Case: Lanham Act: False Advertising

Electronic Data Involved: Costs

ChampionsWorld LLC v. U.S. Soccer Fed?n, 276 F.R.D. 577 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 17, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Addressing defendant?s motion for sanctions, the court found that defendant?s CEO and outside counsel ?should have done more to ensure that relevant evidence was preserved? and that defendant had been prejudiced where certain documents had been lost due to plaintiff?s reliance on a verbal ?100 percent document retention policy? (i.e. the company deleted nothing) and because of plaintiff?s failure to inform its accountants of the need to preserve, but declined to impose drastic sanctions and ordered that the jury be informed of plaintiff?s failure to preserve certain relevant information

Nature of Case: Allegations of anticompetitive acts

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

E.E.O.C. v. Dillon Companies, Inc., —F. Supp. 2d—, 2011 WL 5834648 (D. Colo. Nov. 21, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: For defendant?s failure to preserve highly relevant surveillance footage in bad faith (as evidenced by the loss of three copies of the tape and the deliberate recording over of the master tape) which resulted in prejudice to the plaintiff, the court ordered an adverse inference instruction that the information would have been unfavorable to defendant and precluded defendant from offering the testimony of witnesses who viewed the footage prior to its loss as to what the footage depicted

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination/violation of Americans with Disabilities Act

Electronic Data Involved: Original and three copies of relevant surveillance footage

City of Colton v. Amer. Promotional Events, Inc., 277 F.R.D. 578 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 13, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Affirming the order of the magistrate judge, the Court found that Rule 34 production requirements applied equally to hard copy and ESI, that the Case Management Order did not exempt the parties from the requirements of Rule 34, and that where defendants did not produce ESI as maintained in the usual course of business, they would be required to label their productions to correspond to the categories in the request, or, as offered by plaintiff, could re-produce ESI in native format in lieu of labeling

Nature of Case: CERCLA, RCRA – seeking cleanup costs from owner of property formerly used as ammunition storage

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Denim N. Amer. Holdings, LLC v. Swift Textiles LLC, 816 F. Supp. 2d (M.D. Ga. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Despite noting that it was ?undisputed? that plaintiffs? witnesses did not modify their practice of ?deleting most emails within a short time of receiving them? even after they reasonably anticipated litigation, the court declined to impose an adverse inference where the record supported a finding that the witnesses ?destroyed the emails in the ordinary course of business unmotivated by any bad faith.?

Nature of Case: Fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

State v. Holiday, No. 1 CA-CR 10-0698, 2011 WL 3819844 (Ariz. App. Ct. Aug. 30, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court denied motion to reverse conviction based on state?s failure to preserve evidence despite defendant?s alleged express written request to do so where, because the contents of the audio and visual tapes at issue was unknown, evidence of bad faith was required and where no such evidence was presented; the court indicated: ?The record indicates that the officers were acting in good faith in accordance with their normal practices when the tapes were destroyed.?

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Audio and visual tapes related to arrest, etc.

Mikhlyn v. Bove, No. 08-CV-3367 (ARR) (RER), 2011 WL 4529619 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 3, 2011); Mikylyn v. Bove, No. 08-CV-3367 (ARR) (RER), 2011 WL 4529613 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 28, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Upon reconsideration of prior order awarding sanctions against defendants, court found that additional evidence indicated culpability on the part of defense counsel that justified joint and several liability for sanctions; defendants? discovery violations included willful failure to produce certain documents and the destruction of other ESI; counsels? discovery failures included defense counsels? failure to adequately communicate with opposing counsel resulting in court intervention and failure to comply with court orders; as sanction, court ordered defendants and counsel to pay specifically delineated portions of plaintiffs? attorneys? fees and costs

Nature of Case: trademark infringement, unfair competition, and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Squeo v Norwalk Hosp. Assoc., No. CV095012548, 2011 WL 7029761 (Conn. Super. Ct. Dec. 16, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: In ongoing case addressing plaintiff?s claims of wrongful death resulting from their son?s release from the hospital and subsequent suicide, the court denied defendant?s motion to compel inspection of parents? personal home computer where parents alleged their son?s use of the computer was limited, where plaintiffs made significant efforts to assist in the retrieval of potentially relevant ESI from third parties including AOL, Facebook, and MySpace, where the requested inspection was unlimited by scope of data range, and where there was only speculation as to the existence of relevant evidence; court?s analysis included consideration of newly adopted revisions to Connecticut Practice Book

Nature of Case: Wrongful death

Electronic Data Involved: Personal computer

Xyience, Inc. v. Zyen, LLC (In re Xyience), Ch. 11 Case No. BK-S-08-10474-MKN, Adv. No. 09-1402-MKN, 2011 WL 5239666 (Bankr. D. Nev. Oct. 28, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: For ?discovery misconduct? including failing to issue a litigation hold; admitted deletion of documents; and failure to promptly search certain repositories for responsive information, including a computer utilized by an individual defendant at an unrelated corporation for which he was an officer (but which he used for matters unrelated to that corporation, including for correspondence related to the underlying lawsuits) and the computer of the same individual?s secretary (albeit at yet a third company which was also a defendant), the court ordered monetary sanctions ?to reimburse Plaintiff?s expenses costs, and reasonable attorney?s fees?

Nature of Case: Bankruptcy

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Fastenal Co., No. 4:10-cv-00317-SWW, 2011 WL 6829625 (E.D. Ark. Dec. 16, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 1920(4), court awarded the prevailing party $11,675.00 ?for the technical, specialized services necessary for responses to B&B?s request for electronically stored information? noting that B&B?s requests required defendant to extract 150 gigabytes of raw data for ten custodians which required additional processing and review and concluding that? [g]iven the extensive e-discovery that Fastenal was required to conduct, the Court in these circumstances finds that allowing a prevailing party to recover the costs of providing ESI where the opposing party requested that responsive documents be produced in certain electronic formats is appropriate.?

Nature of Case: Breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Archive - December 1, 2011