Case Summaries – Page 199 – Electronic Discovery Law

In re Google Litig., No. C 08-03172 RMW (PSG), 2011 WL 6113000 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 7, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where third party objected to plaintiff?s subpoena as overly broad and burdensome but nevertheless undertook a limited search which resulted in the identification of zero documents, but where plaintiff argued the search was halfhearted and that additional searching was required, the court took notice of objective of the recently adopted Model Order on E-Discovery in Patent Cases and indicated its applicability to third parties and thereafter ordered plaintiff to provide the non-party with five search terms to be utilized in additional searching and that plaintiff would bear the costs of any terms beyond the limits agreed to by the parties or granted by the court

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

N.V.E. Inc. v. Palmeroni, No. 06-5455 (ES), 2011 WL 4407428 (D.N.J. Sept. 21, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court ordered adverse inference and monetary sanctions (in an amount to be established) where plaintiff was grossly negligent in its preservation, review and collection of documents, including by failing to issue a litigation hold and because of counsel?s failure to supervise the review and collection of documents, and where such failures resulted in the loss of relevant evidence; court denied request for preclusion of evidence where defendant failed to establish that plaintiff acted in bad faith; Motion for Reconsideration denied by District Judge 2012 WL 2020242 (D.N.J. June 5, 2012)

Doyle v. Gonzales, 2011 WL 611825 (E.D. Wash. Feb. 10, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where a small town with ?limited financial and technological resources? sought a protective order to allow phased discovery of ESI in light of the alleged burden and expense of the requested discovery, the court granted in part the defendant?s motion and crafted a protective order which established the search terms to be employed and allowed plaintiff the opportunity to provide suggestions and which provided that if the search returned an unreasonable amount of documents that plaintiff?s counsel should assist in ?restructuring the search? to reduce that number

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Appleton Papers, Inc. v. George A. Whiting Paper Co., No. 08-C-16, 2011 WL 7005721 (E.D. Wis. Dec. 19. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court declined to impose spoliation sanctions for destruction of original microfiche where the destruction occurred in a somewhat unique situation ( the crate of microfiche was destroyed after becoming an ?orphan sitting in a warehouse? after being shipped back to England) and where ?nothing of value was lost? because the originals had been digitally copied

Electronic Data Involved: Original microfiche

Makeen v. Comcast of Colo. X, LLC, 2011 WL 93728 (D. Colo. Jan. 11, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court denied motion for sanctions for defendant?s loss of server logs where the court determined that the logs were of minimal relevance to plaintiff?s claims and where the logs ?rolled over? in the usual course of business prior to the trigger of defendant?s duty to preserve

Nature of Case: Violation of FMLA and ADA, employment discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress

Electronic Data Involved: Server logs

Apelbaum v. Networked Insights, Inc., 2011 WL 286125 (W.D. Wis. Jan. 27, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court declined to impose sanctions for plaintiff?s failure to disable software set to automatically erase and write-over internet-related files whenever the browser closed where plaintiff asserted that he installed such software as a regular practice on all of his computers and where because of the automatic nature of the software, evidence was lost well before plaintiff filed his suit or defendant filed its countersuit; defendant would be allowed to present additional evidence of spoliation at trial and the court indicated its willingness to reconsider sanctions upon a showing that more than just internet-related files were deleted

Nature of Case: Breach of contract related to compensation

Electronic Data Involved: Laptop

Diesel Mach., Inc. v. Manitowoc Crane, Inc., No. CIV 09-4087-RAL, 2011 WL 677458 (D.S.D. Feb 16, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Where parties had an agreement to produce in native format which the court had approved and adopted but later agreed that defendant could produce some information in hard copy (in light of defendant?s representation that hard copy production could be more quickly accomplished prior to pending depositions), the court found the parties agreement to produce in native format was modified and declined to compel re-production citing the burden and expense (including duplication of time and expense of conducting redactions, for example)

Nature of Case: Breach of contract and claims arising from South Dakota Dealer Protection Act

Electronic Data Involved: ESI produced in hard copy

Papadoplos v. Schmidt, Ronca & Kramer, PC, 21 A.3d 1216 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Appellate court affirmed sanction of dismissal of plaintiffs? claims for spoliation where plaintiff was found to have undertaken ?knowing and willful? spoliation of ?pertinent? evidence resulting in prejudice to the defendant by destroying relevant hard drives

Nature of Case: Legal Malpractice

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, hard drives

United States v. Cameron, 762 F. Supp. 2d 152 (D. Me. 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Images of child pornography produced by ISPs to government were properly authenticated by testimony of ISPs? legal assistants who were familiar with the process for collecting those images and the reliability and accuracy of the servers and who testified that the images offered into evidence were the same as those collected and that the images had been traced to the defendant?s computer; court reasoned that ?[i]t is not necessary for the Government to produce the actual ISP searchers in order to comply with the requirements of the Sixth Amendment?

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Images of child pornography

F.T.C. v. Asia Pac. Telecom, Inc., No. 10 C 3168, 2011 WL 2110220 (N.D. Ill. May 25, 2011)

Dec 01 2011

Key Insight: Court found defendants in contempt and, in the alternative, invoked its inherent authority to sanction where defendants were found to have deactivated a relevant Yahoo! email account in violation of a temporary restraining order which caused the information therein to be permanently lost and where the court found that the deactivation was in bad faith and resulted in prejudice to the plaintiff; court declined to impose default judgment but ordered adverse inferences which substantially eased plaintiff?s ability to establish liability

Nature of Case: Violations of National Do Not Call Registry

Electronic Data Involved: Web based emails

Catagory:Case Summaries