Key Insight: Court granted motion to compel production of documents related to defendant?s litigation hold/preservation efforts where the court found that GE was at fault for the loss of certain data beyond mere inadvertence or carelessness and that the evidence lost was both relevant and discoverable
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Database
Key Insight: Court granted plaintiffs? motion for sanctions and ordered adverse inference for defendants? spoliation where defendants failed to suspend the automatic deletion function on their email which deleted both incoming and outgoing emails after three to four days and where defendants admitted to deleting relevant audio visual content from their server, court also ordered payment of attorney?s fees and costs for defendants? failure to adequately respond to the court?s order for particular information related to their preservation and collection efforts; court rejected assertions that UK Data Protection Act does not permit the retention of personal information and required deletion of emails where defendant offered no evidence that the deleted data contained personal information protected by statute and also rejected the position that the court lacked authority to order production pursuant to the Data Protection Act
Nature of Case: Copyright infringement
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
Key Insight: Court upheld clawback agreement between the parties which held that inadvertent production would not result in waiver; where parties entered into 26(f) agreement regarding what metadata need be produced but where plaintiff moved to compel production of additional fields because those provided did not allow him to search effectively or identify the source of particular documents, the court entered into an extensive analysis of the ?form? and ?organization? requirements in Rule 34 and withheld ruling until defendant could provide evidence regarding the burden of providing an index that could allow identification of the source of each document
Nature of Case: State employment claims
Electronic Data Involved: ESI, metadata
Key Insight: Applying Washington State law, court held that return of employer-issued laptop containing attorney-client privileged information without asserting a claim of privilege as to those contents resulted in waiver of privilege; even where privilege was asserted as to certain contents prior to return of employer-issued laptop, privilege was waived where employer?s policies negated expectation of privacy, including as to web based email accessed on the laptop; court?s analysis applied four part test from In re Asia Global Crossing, Ltd., 322 B.R. 247 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2005)
Nature of Case: Breach of separation agreement, conversion
Electronic Data Involved: Privileged emails
Key Insight: Addressing discovery issues ?looming on the horizon? court indicated that there appeared to be no basis to require defendant to forensically image at-issue hard drives and, addressing whether defendant would be required to restore and review backup tapes which it claimed could cost $84,854,704. 90 (a number the court called ?absurdly high? on its face), found that it would be difficult for plaintiff to meet the seven factor test for good cause and that defendant had sufficiently objected to plaintiff?s request such that arguments that the backup tapes were not reasonably accessible had not been waived
Electronic Data Involved: Forensic image of hard drives, backup tapes
Key Insight: Where plaintiff was required to scan electronically produced documents ?using OCR to convert them into a searchable format to make them useable? and argued that such conversion was ?reasonably necessary? and the modern equivalent of ?fees for exemplification and the costs of making copies of any materials where the copies are necessarily obtained for use in the case,? the court agreed and allowed the costs
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
Key Insight: Court addressed defendants? request for ?costs for utilizing the expertise of computer technicians in unearthing the vast amount of computerized data sought by Plaintiffs in discovery? and reasoned that ?[c]ourts have found that costs such as those sought by Defendants are recoverable under ? 1920(4)? and that defendants costs were not incurred for mere convenience but rather were ?necessarily incurred in responding to Plaintiffs? discovery requests? and concluded the costs were reasonable; the court found the request to be moot, however, where defendants sought costs ?only to the extent Plaintiffs receive attorneys fees? and no such fees were awarded
Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs
Key Insight: Where plaintiffs challenged the sufficiency of defendants? search, including whether defendants had used the agreed-upon search terms, and the format of defendant?s production, and where plaintiff specifically pointed to an email that should have been produced but was not, the court noted plaintiffs? concession that defendants? search methodology did not result in plaintiff receiving fewer documents and that they had been able to use the information produced, despite their arguments regarding format, but ?nevertheless concluded? that defendants should provide additional information and ordered the submission of an affidavit detailing defendants? search efforts; the court concluded that the dispute in this case was ?caused primarily by the parties? mutual failure to communicate and work together in good faith to resolve the areas of dispute? and counseled that in future the parties should more clearly specify the way in which discovery will be conducted and, if they cannot agree, should seek judicial assistance
Nature of Case: Suit for damages arising from failure to provide proper ship management
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
Key Insight: Where court found that plaintiffs? EEOC claims did not provide sufficient notice of the likelihood of a nationwide class action and where defendant destroyed the ESI of the former employees at issue in accordance with its usual document retention policies, court found that plaintiff had failed to show that information was destroyed in an effort to suppress the truth or that they had suffered any prejudice and declined to order sanctions
Nature of Case: Class action alleging age discrimination in employment
Electronic Data Involved: ESI of former employees
Key Insight: Where Commonwealth offered evidence that at-issue emails originated from an account bearing defendant?s name and acknowledged to be used by defendant; that the emails were found on the hard drive of defendant?s computer for which he supplied the passwords; that at least one email contained a picture of defendant, and that in another, he provided an accurate description of ?the unusual set of services provided by the salon and of himself (?hairstylist, art and antiques dealer, [and] massage therapist?), the judge did not err in concluding the emails were properly authenticated as having been authored by the defendant, despite defendant?s denial of the same
Nature of Case: Convictions related to prostitution
Electronic Data Involved: Emails
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