2016 – Page 23 – Electronic Discovery Law

Dao v. Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston (Northern District of CA, 2016)

Feb 23 2016

Key Insight: if the balance of the discovery requests outweighed their benefit

Nature of Case: Breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, fraud , negligent misrepresentation, declaratory relief and unfair competition.

Electronic Data Involved: responses of three interrogatories in light of changes to rule 26

Keywords: proportionality, motion to compel, balance of request, benefit of requested discovery

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Stormo v. City of Sioux Falls, No. 12-04057 (D. S.D. Feb. 19, 2016)

Feb 19 2016

Key Insight: Providing a document index is not overly burdensome. Production of metadata cannot be compelled without showing that metadata is relevant..

Nature of Case: violation of civil rights as a landowner

Electronic Data Involved: metadata, electronically stored data, document index

Keywords: adequacy of production, metadata relevancy

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Court Declines to Compel Production of All Documents Identified by Agreed-Upon Search Terms

Feb 18 2016

Gardner v. Continental Cas. Co., 3:13 CV 1918 (JBA), 2016 WL 155002 (D. Conn. Jan. 1, 2016)

Plaintiffs sought to compel production of all 38,000 documents hit by agreed-upon search terms. Following review for relevance and privilege, Defendant produced only 2,214 pages “of which 274 pages consisted of copies of the complaints, with exhibits, filed in this lawsuit.” The court declined to compel the production of all search hits, but acknowledged concerns regarding Defendant’s production based on documents produced by a third party. Accordingly, the court ordered the parties to confer regarding variations of “sampling and iterative refinement” or “a quick peek protocol” of the documents hit by search terms and also indicated willingness to consider appointment of a Special Master to conduct a review of the documents at the expense of the parties.

McSparran v. Pennsylvania (M.D. Pa, 2016)

Feb 16 2016

Key Insight: Discovery, metadata associated with electronic information

Nature of Case: Modification of the Court Order – Motion to Compel

Electronic Data Involved: Court order granted, plaintiff is not required to produce metadata.

Keywords: metadata, electronic information, request for production of documents, order

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Arcelormittal Indiana Harbor, LLC v. Amex Nooter, LLC (Northern District of Indiana, 2016)

Feb 16 2016

Key Insight: confidential settlement information in documents requested

Nature of Case: Negligence and breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: communications between Amex Nooter and IOSHA

Keywords: Confidential Settlement information, motion to compel, impeachment

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Thomley v. Bennett (S.D. Ga., 2016)

Feb 08 2016

Key Insight: whether defendants acted with prejudice in not preserving “loop type system” video footage; whether spoliation sanctions apply for destroyed evidence

Nature of Case: Eighth Amendment claims for deliberate indifference and excessive force (cruel and unusual punishment)

Electronic Data Involved: medical records

Keywords: spoliation, preserve, prejudice, intent, bad faith, loop type system

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Malibu Media, LLC v. Doe (Northern District of Illinois Court, 2016)

Feb 08 2016

Key Insight: Whether plaintiff?s failure to demonstrate allegations leads to summary judgment for defendant

Nature of Case: Copyright Infringement

Electronic Data Involved: external hard-drive, internal hard-drive

Keywords: bittorrent, torrent

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InternMatch, Inc. v. Nxtbigthing, LLC (N.D. Cal., 2016)

Feb 08 2016

Key Insight: Failure to preserve relevant evidence.

Nature of Case: Trademark ownership dispute.

Electronic Data Involved: Defendants discarded computers, following an alleged power surge which “fried” data.

Keywords: Defendants “willfully spoliated evidence” and the “extraordinary measures Batterman undertook to mislead opposing counsel and the Court merit a finding of bad faith.”

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Citing Newly-Amended Rule 37(e), Court Vacates Prior Order Imposing Adverse Inference

Feb 04 2016

Nuvasive, Inc. v. Madsen Med. Inc., No. 13cv2077 BTM(RBB), 2016 WL 305096 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 26, 2016)

In this case, the court granted Plaintiff’s motion to reconsider a prior order imposing an adverse inference for Plaintiff’s failure to preserve text messages, in light of new standards imposed under recently amended Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e).

Bazzi v. YP Advertising & Publishing, LLC (Eastern District of Michigan, 2016)

Feb 03 2016

Key Insight: forensic imaging of USB drive of handwritten notes and reopening of deposition for questioning regarding the notes

Nature of Case: Employment Discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: handwritten notes from plantiff

Keywords: delaying tactics, reopening deposition, disclosure of evidence at deposition, relevancy

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Archive - 2016