Key Insight: In case where parties disputed whether arbitration agreement applied to plaintiff and motion on the issue was pending, court allowed limited discovery and ordered defendant to choose up to 10 individuals whose files (electronic or otherwise) would be searched for information falling within certain categories
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Key Insight: Where plaintiff provided only partial production and made false representations to court about non-existence of responsive documents, court imposed monetary sanctions and would deem as true certain contentions
Nature of Case: Trademark infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email concerning customer communications
Key Insight: Court imposed monetary sanctions, ordered defendant to submit to Rule 30(b)(6) deposition regarding its efforts to locate and produce responsive documents, and ordered defendant to produce key player’s computer for inspection by plaintiff, where evidence showed that the home and/or work computers of a key player and several witnesses had not been searched for responsive documents
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive; computerized records
Key Insight: Court denied request for sanctions or adverse inference instruction based on absence of video footage of plaintiff after arrest since there was no evidence of bad faith and video security system had experienced a number of unexplained problems
Nature of Case: Plaintiff alleged use of excessive force
Electronic Data Involved: Video surveillance footage
Key Insight: Magistrate judge was within his discretion to order that original discs be produced for computer expert’s inspection and copying so that all parties could be satisfied as to the authenticity and integrity of the copies provided
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Computer discs onto which plaintiff had copied various files of defendant
Key Insight: Where one defendant failed to comply with court’s orders regarding forensic inspection and copying of hard drives, and there was evidence of data spoliation and physical tampering with computer hardware, court concluded that default judgment was appropriate sanction and also ordered the defendant to pay the reasonable attorney fees and costs that its misbehavior caused plaintiff to incur
Nature of Case: Insurance fraud, insurance coverage
Electronic Data Involved: Various hard drives and backup drives
Key Insight: Where evidence showed that defendant had not fully complied with preliminary injunction and had continued to retain and use disputed software, court ordered defendant to produce all of its computers for inspection by plaintiff’s computer expert to ensure that all plaintiff’s software and trade secrets were removed; court further ordered defendant to bear costs of expert’s work and to pay plaintiff its reasonable fees and expenses in bringing the motion
Nature of Case: Copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets
Electronic Data Involved: Software programs, disks, hard drives
Key Insight: Where defendant failed to timely disclose that it was withholding certain information from production and defense counsel made representations several times to plaintiff and to court that she had provided full and complete discovery, court: (1) granted motion to compel production of database in hard copy and in electronic form with specific redactions noted and included in revised privilege log; (2) extended discovery cut-off date; and (3) awarded sanctions solely against defense counsel (and not client) for costs of motion
Nature of Case: Fraud and medical malpractice
Electronic Data Involved: Database
Key Insight: Court denied plaintiffs’ motion for spoliation sanctions based upon defendant’s failure to produce complete copy of particular monthly medical report where plaintiffs failed to show that duty to preserve attached to the report, or that report was crucial to their claims, and there was no evidence of bad faith, especially since defendant had gone to “extraordinary lengths” to attempt to retrieve a copy of the complete report
Nature of Case: Civil rights, excessive force
Electronic Data Involved: Monthly medical report
Key Insight: Court declined to compel American Express to search for email sent from and to certain executives who were no longer employed by American Express, since the moving parties had not agreed to search for email sent from or to their own former executives and American Express had already produced some 27,501 emails sent to or from certain former executives through the production of email from other custodians
Nature of Case: Antitrust
Electronic Data Involved: Email of former executives
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