March 21, 2022 – Electronic Discovery Law

Orchestrate HR, Inc. v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Inc. (D. Kan. 2022)

Mar 21 2022

Key Insight: The Magistrate denied defendant’s motion to add plaintiffs outside counsel as a list of documents custodians for ESI discovery purposes. The court noted that relatively little legal authority exists on the standards to apply when parties cannot agree on designated ESI custodians. Relying on the limited legal authority and The Sedona Principles, the court noted as follows: (1) determining what is relevant and proportional is a highly fact-specific inquiry; (2) absent agreement among the parties, the party responding to discovery requests is entitled to select the custodians it deems most likely to possess responsive information; (3) unless the party’s choice is unreasonable or results in a deficient production, the court should not dictate ESI custodians; and (4) the party seeking to compel the designation of a particular custodian has the initial burden to show that the disputed custodian’s ESI is relevant to the claims or defenses.

Nature of Case: Tort Claims

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Case Summary

Europe v. Equinox Holdings, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2022)

Mar 21 2022

Key Insight: Plaintiff brought a motion for sanctions alleging defendants failed to preserve a key piece of evidence (the September 2019 managers’ schedule from the month when she was terminated) in her employment discrimination suit. The court concluded that defendants should have taken steps to preserve the schedule in December 2019 when plaintiff notified defendants that she intended to initiate litigation, and they failed to do so. The court noted that the harshest sanction of adverse inference was not appropriate because it did not appear by clear and convincing evidence that the failure to preserve the evidence was done in order to gain an advantage in the litigation. The court ordered that plaintiff could present to the jury that the September 2019 schedule was lost and defendants could not compare her lateness to other employees in September 2019 or argue that her co-workers’ lateness in September 2019 was less than hers.

Nature of Case: Employment Discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Business Documents

Case Summary

Archive - March 21, 2022