Case Summaries – Page 112 – Electronic Discovery Law

US ex rel Oughatiyan v. IPC The Hospitalist Co., Inc., No. 09 C 5418, 2015 WL 4249195 (N.D. Ill. July 14, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court addressed motion to compel nationwide discovery in action for fraudulent billing of Medicare and Medicaid but, considering the ?scope of discovery expressed in Rule 26(b)(1) along with the principle of proportionality implicit in Rule 26(b)(2)(C)(iii)? limited initial phase of discovery to the seven states regarding which ?factual allegations? had been alleged in the complaint, recognizing that ?staged discovery [was] the way to move discovery forward,? and indicated that the motion would be denied without prejudice

Nature of Case: False Claims Act

Electronic Data Involved: ESI records from nationwide locations

Boyd v. Mississippi, No. 2014?KA?00404?SCT, 2015 WL 1955570 (Miss. Apr. 30, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court said that it was clear that the defendant?s name on a Facebook profile did not suffice to show that he authored the Facebook messages, but what did authenticate them were the ?peculiar circumstances? of the case, including a Facebook message that contained the same three digits of a phone number that was used to text victim and arrange a meeting at which the defendant was arrested. Court also found that the fact that the defendant went alone to an agreed location twice after the sender of text messages agreed to do so, with a phone in his possession that had the same number as had been used to communicate with the victim, was sufficient to authenticate that the defendant was the author of the text messages.

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Social media (Facebook), Text Messages

State v. Gibson, Nos. L?13?1223, L?13?1222, WL 1962850 (Ohio Ct. App. May 01, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court of Appeals said that a combination of both personal knowledge of the appearance and substance of public Facebook profile pages, taken in conjunction with direct and circumstantial evidence was sufficient to meet threshold admissibility requirements such that a reasonable juror could conclude that the various Facebook profile pages were attributable to appellant; therefore, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting printed pages of images from the public portions of Facebook profiles.

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Facebook (social media/social network)

Weidenhamer v. Expedia, Inc., No. C14-1239RAJ, 2015 WL 7158212 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 13, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel Defendant to search for documents from non-U.S. points of sale where the court found such documents would be of ?marginal relevance at best? and that the burden and expense of production outweighed the benefit, noting that such production would ?vastly expand? an already voluminous production, would entail additional translation costs, and would ?potentially require the involvement of additional entities or foreign law??; court also declined to compel Defendant to conduct searches of Account Representatives for 170 different airlines where Plaintiff failed to establish that the expanded search would reveal additional relevant information and noting that the productions of third party air carriers had not revealed any ?glaring deficiencies? in Defendant?s production

Nature of Case: Class action

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Comprehensive Addiction Treatment Center, Inc. v. Leslea, No. 11-cv-03417-CMA-MJW, 2015 WL 638198 (D. Colo. Feb. 13, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Plaintiffs brought a ?Motion to Review Clerk?s Taxing of Costs Under F.R.C.P. 54(D)(1).? Specifically, Plaintiffs sought review of the clerk?s determination ?concerning the costs taxed amount of $55,649.98, which accounts for Defendants contracting with a private consulting company, Cyopsis, to retrieve and convert ESI into a retrievable format to produce information requested by Plaintiffs.? The court held that ?[b]ecause Defendants? costs related to the electronically stored information (?ESI?) are expenses enumerated in 28 U.S.C. ? 1920(4), and Plaintiffs were aware that Defendants would have to retain an outside consultant to retrieve and convert the ESI into a retrievable format, Plaintiffs? Motion is denied.?

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Hanwha Azdel Inc. v. C & D Zodiac, Inc., No. 6:12-CV-00023, 2015 WL 1417058 (Mar. 27, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: District Judge adopted in toto recommendations of the Magistrate Judge, including approval of costs related to converting ESI into a reasonable format, where the conversion was requested by an opposing party and ultimately ordered by the court

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Davenport v. Charter Comm?cns., LLC, No. 2015 WL 1286372 (E.D. Mo. Mar. 20, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court denied Plaintiffs? motion to compel re-production of time records in .xls format where Defendant first produced the records in a searchable PDF format, generally found by courts to be ?reasonably usable,? and where the parties? discovery plan contemplated the possible reproduction of certain information upon a showing of good cause in situations where the data or metadata was not adequately captured, but where the court found that Plaintiffs desire to manipulate the documents with greater ease did not constitute good cause; court stated: ?Such difficulties would have been a good reason for Plaintiffs to specify a particular format in their request for production, but are not sufficient ?good cause? to force Defendant to reformat and produce data which it has already provided.?

Nature of Case: FLSA Collective Action

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic Time Clock Records

Smith v. Williams, No. 06-14-00040-CV, 2015 WL 3526089 (Tx. Ct. App. May 29, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Trial court erred by giving a spoliation instruction for Defendant?s failure to produce certain information where an explanation was given for the nonexistence of some records and where there was no evidence that the missing records were lost with the requisite intent to conceal or destroy relevant evidence and the error was harmful; judgment was reversed and case remanded

Nature of Case: Personal injury resulting from automobile/tractor-trailer collision

Electronic Data Involved: Miscellaneous records

Charvat v. Valente, No. 12 CV 5746, 2015 WL 4037776 (N.D. Ill. July 1, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court declined to impose sanctions for loss of former employees? ESI where ESI was deleted pursuant to ?established document retention policy? absent any evidence of bad faith

Nature of Case: Prohibited Telemarketing

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Am. Fed. Of Musicians of the U.S. and Canada v. Skodam Films, LLC, NO. 3:15-mc-122-M-BN, 2015 WL 7771078 (N.D. Tex. Dec. 3, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court concluded non-party?s objections to the at-issue subpoena were subject to Rule 34 requirements for objections and, addressing the non-party?s claims of overbreadth and burden, modified the subpoena upon finding that the document requests were ?facially overbroad and pose[d] an undue burden? because they called for the production of ?apparently every document? related to the making of the at-issue movie

Nature of Case: Breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: Third party discovery, including ESI

Catagory:Case Summaries