Dombrowski v. Lumpkin Cnty., No. 2:11-CV-276-RWS-JCF, 2013 WL 2099137 (N.D. Ga. Mar. 21, 2013)

Key Insight: Court declined to impose adverse inference for Defendant?s alleged failure to issue a litigation hold where Plaintiff failed to establish bad faith and failed to establish that ?critical or crucial evidence was destroyed??addressing the presence of bad faith, court noted that Defendants? email practices, i.e., that the individual defendant frequently deleted his emails and that once placed in the trash, they were automatically deleted after two weeks, resulted in Plaintiff?s claims gaining ?little traction? in light of Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(e); court declined to impose adverse inference for the alleged destruction of ?unidentified documents? where plaintiff ?failed to carry her burden of showing bad faith? and also failed to establish that she had ?suffered prejudice as a result of the missing documents?

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination; defamation; intentional infliction of emotional distress

Electronic Data Involved: Emails, ESI