June 2015 – Electronic Discovery Law

Upcoming Event: Discovery of Social Media: Legal and Practical Considerations

Jun 23 2015

Please join us for an in-depth discussion of issues related to the discoverability and admissibility of social media content.

Thursday
July 16, 2015
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. EDT
Program will be 90 minutes, followed by time for Q&A

Our panel of K&L Gates lawyers will cover topics including: the discoverability standards applied by courts with regard to social media content; the likely effects of the anticipated amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on such standards; the relevance of the federal Stored Communications Act to discovery of information on social media; the issues involved in preserving, collecting, searching, reviewing, and producing information from social media; and the considerations pertinent to admission of social media content as evidence.

CLICK HERE to register.

Court Finds Wife Liable for Agent-Husband’s Intentional Deletions, Recommends Default Judgment

Jun 19 2015

Malibu Media, LLC v. Tashiro, No. 1:13-cv-00205-WTL-MJD, 2015 WL 2371597 (S.D. Ind. May 18, 2015)

In this copyright infringement case, the court found that Defendants “spoiled evidence, committed perjury, and failed to discharge their duties to conduct discovery reasonably and in good faith” and recommended default judgment. Notably, in addition to more familiar issues surrounding the topic of spoliation, the court’s opinion addressed the question of whether spoliation occurs when information is still recoverable (yes) and the propriety of imputing an agent’s bad acts in discovery where, as in this case, Defendant Wife “left it to her agent—her husband—to respond to Plaintiff’s document requests.”

Court Declines to Compel Production of Backup Tapes, Active Emails in Native Format

Jun 10 2015

United States ex rel. Carter v. Bridgepoint Educ., Inc., 305 F.R.D. 225 (S.D. Cal. 2015)

In this case, the court addressed Plaintiffs’ demands that Defendants restore ESI contained on disaster recovery backup tapes for production in native format and produce active emails in native format with metadata. Upon finding the backup tapes inaccessible, the court undertook the relevant cost-shifting analysis and determined that if Plaintiffs wanted production of the contents of the backup tapes in native format, they would be responsible for the cost. The court also determined that TIFF images were a reasonable format for production and declined to compel production of active emails in native format or production of metadata. Accordingly, “Plaintiffs’ requests for the production of Backup Databases, the Active Emails in Native, and the Metadata” were denied without prejudice.

Archive - June 2015