Key Insight: Preliminary injunction is granted when party sent trade secrets to themselves and opposing party may be irreparably harmed by usage of information
Nature of Case: Trade secret infringement
Electronic Data Involved: E-mails
Keywords: preliminary injunction, irreparable harm,
Key Insight: Asserting well supported objection against a relevant request.
Nature of Case: personal injury
Electronic Data Involved: social media accounts, and postings
Keywords: social media records, mental state, postings
Lifeguard Licensing Corp. v. Kozak, No. 15 Civ. 8459 (LGS)(JCF), 2016 WL 3144049 (S.D.N.Y. May 23, 2016)
In this intellectual property dispute, the court denied Defendants’ motion to compel Plaintiffs’ production of “discoverable information relevant to the defendants’ likely defenses and counterclaims” citing Defendants’ decision to move for dismissal without filing an answer to the Complaint and reasoning, among other things, that the “plain language” of Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1)—recently amended “so that discovery now extends only as far as information relevant to claims or defenses”—“does not provide for discovery of ‘likely,’ ‘anticipated,’ or ‘potential’ claims or defenses.”
Key Insight: When the productions of underlying information (exact Excel formulas in this case) may disclose proprietary information, a supplemental disclosure explaining the underlying reasons may be a suitable replacement
Nature of Case: Automobile insurance coverage
Electronic Data Involved: Excel spreadsheet formulas
Keywords: Excel, formulas, moot, metadata, award of sanctions, expenses, fees
Key Insight: Plaintiff failure to produce relevant and discoverable information.
Nature of Case: Insurance coverage litigation.
Electronic Data Involved: Email produced by a third party.
Keywords: Motion to compel. Specificity. Failure to specify.
Mathew Enter., Inc. v. Chrysler Grp. LLC, No. 13-cv-04236-BLF, 2016 WL 2957133 (N.D. Cal. May 23, 2016)
The rules governing parties’ duties to preserve data do not demand perfection. Only when a party should have preserved electronically stored information “in the anticipation or conduct of litigation” and when that party “failed to take reasonable steps to preserve it” may a court order corrective measures. The standard is an attainable one.
Applying newly-amended Rule 37(e) (which “now provides a genuine safe harbor for those parties that take ‘reasonable steps’ to preserve their [ESI]”) the court concluded that Defendant was prejudiced by Plaintiff’s failure to preserve customer communications and imposed curative measures.
Key Insight: cant compel production of overseas medical records not in plaintiff’s possession
Nature of Case: medical malpractice, failure to warn
Electronic Data Involved: medical documents
Keywords: UAE patient cant get lien records from overseas entities
Key Insight: The Village did not preserve the facebook posts or text messages despite having that duty. Court ruled that severe sanctions were warranted including an adverse inference and legal fees.
Nature of Case: discrimination; zoning
Electronic Data Involved: Facebook posts and text messages
Keywords: adverse inference; facebook, texts
Key Insight: Plaintiff alleges Defendant accessed personal email on her former work computer. Court only allowed Stored Communications Act claim to move forward to discovery.
Nature of Case: Federal Wiretap Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,
Electronic Data Involved: Personal Email Account on Work Computer, Stored Communications Act
Keywords: email access; personal email
Key Insight: Deletion of emails at recommendation of email provider is not deletion with intent to destroy evidence, therefore terminating sanctions are overbroad
Nature of Case: Antitrust
Electronic Data Involved: Deleted emails
Keywords: Theatres, Cinemark, terminating sanctions, Bryan Cranston
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