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: Court denied defendant’s request for “electronic discovery of plaintiff’s attorneys’ computers” to determine whether affidavit of service of reply brief was backdated
Electronic Data Involved: Plaintiff’s counsel’s computers
Key Insight: Court approved recover of taxable costs, including ?electronic scanning and imaging of documents? where declarations established that the costs were ?necessarily incurred? and where ?electronic scanning and imaging could be interpreted as ?exemplification and copies of papers??costs specifically allowed under the relevant statute
Electronic Data Involved: ESI
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 imposed sanctions against city in the form of a rebuttable adverse inference, and fees and costs related to the discovery dispute, based upon city’s grossly negligent failure to institute litigation hold and consequent destruction of relevant hard copy documents
Nature of Case: Breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation
Electronic Data Involved: Email printouts and other hard copy documents
Key Insight: Where plaintiff?s affidavit in support of motion stated that emails were used routinely in the course of defendants’ business, described defendants? backup process, and asserted that he was able to run a search on Lotus Notes folders he maintained, resulting in production by him to defendants of 5,000 emails, and defendants provided little information except to state that backup tapes were routinely overwritten and that deleted emails could not be recovered, court noted that defendants? efforts to preserve evidence or lack thereof could be an issue in the case and allowed plaintiff to designate IT expert to inspect hard drives and backup media identified in discovery demands; court further directed defendants to provide access, subject to inspection protocol and confidentiality stipulation to be submitted by parties for court approval
Nature of Case: Disability discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Emails, hard drives
Key Insight: Denying plaintiff’s motion for entry of default judgment as sanction for tardy production of documents, court found that plaintiff had suffered little prejudice from delay and that defendant had worked diligently, did not willfully withhold responsive documents, and did not improperly modify or delete files froom hard drive before voluntarily producing it
Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive
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: District court did not abuse its discretion where, in course of discovery dispute, it ordered both parties to submit their copies of data to the district court’s Information Technology personnel to see if the material could be retrieved, and denied plaintiff’s motion to compel when court’s personnel had no problems retrieving the data
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Email and electronic documents
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
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