Key Insight: Court granted plaintiffs’ ex parte application for leave to take immediate discovery from defendants’ Internet Service Provider, whose subscriber activity log files would allow plaintiffs to discover each defendant’s true name, address and other identifying information
Nature of Case: Copyright infringement
Electronic Data Involved: ISP’s subscriber activity logs
Key Insight: Permanent injunction that restrained defendant from “[r]emoving or destroying any files, or copies of files, including but not limited to Defendants’ computer or computer files” was overbroad because it enjoined activities defendant had a legal right to perform, such as deleting records and files that had nothing to do with the subject litigation
Nature of Case: Company sued former employee and his competing business for misappropriation of trade secrets
Electronic Data Involved: Computer files
Key Insight: Noting that a responding party “must cover the costs of gathering the requested item; not to cover the costs of reproduction absent a showing of good cause as to why the burden should be shifted,” court instructed plaintiff to provide hard copies of its website as defendant had requested, at defendant’s expense
Nature of Case: Copyright and trademark infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Website pages
Key Insight: Court ordered defendants to produce American College of Radiology reports during certain time frame, to produce all information pertaining to plaintiff contained in, or retrievable from, their computer systems, and, if requested by the United States, to make available for deposition persons with knowledge of the computer system maintained by hospital during certain time frame
Nature of Case: Medical malpractice
Electronic Data Involved: All information pertaining to plaintiff contained in, or retrievable from, defendants’ computer systems
Key Insight: No abuse of discretion to deny mother’s request to conduct forensic examination of father’s computer; although mother alleged that computer contained pornography, there was no evidence the child had seen it and it would be impossible to definitively attribute the pornography to father, since other adults used the computer and certain components were salvaged from other computers
Nature of Case: Mother sought to require supervision of child’s visits with father
Electronic Data Involved: Computer hard drive
Key Insight: Court denied plaintiffs’ motion for a preservation order, finding that plaintiff had not made a showing of a significant threat that documents would be lost or destroyed absent entry of an immediate order, and concluding that the regular procedures for discovery (including the court’s Electronic Discovery Guidelines) were sufficient and appropriate
Nature of Case: False Claims Act
Electronic Data Involved: Electronic evidence
Key Insight: Where defendant breached its duty to preserve by failing to establish a “comprehensive document retention policy” and by failing to properly disseminate the policy to its employees, and conduct evinced ?extraordinarily poor judgment? and ?gross negligence” but not willfulness or bad faith, magistrate recommended that prejudice to plaintiff could be remedied by precluding defendant from cross-examining plaintiff’s financial expert and by instructing the jury about the sanction
Nature of Case: Securities class action
Electronic Data Involved: Underlying data and calculations
Key Insight: When husband failed to produce, pursuant to subpoena, computer containing financial information at hearing, court allowed a computer technician to go to husband’s home to copy the hard drive, and suspended the hearing until a later date to allow review of the hard drive
Nature of Case: Divorce proceedings
Electronic Data Involved: Computer hard drive
Key Insight: Court allowed reopening of discovery and ordered plaintiff to produce former employee’s personal journals that were relevant to parties’ dispute, where former employee revealed existence of journals in deposition taken during last week of discovery; court further granted defendant leave to subpoena former employee directly in the event plaintiff was unable to take possession of the journals
Nature of Case: Action to recover promissory note debt
Electronic Data Involved: Former employee’s personal journal maintained on home computer
Key Insight: Denying defendant’s motion for a new trial, court concluded that adverse inference jury instruction based upon defendant’s mistaken failure to suspend document retention policy that deleted email every 30 days was not misleading or unduly prejudicial
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email
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