Key Insight: Former CEO of defendant subpoenaed and ordered to appear for deposition and produce his laptop computer for forensic inspection pursuant to court’s approved search protocol; CEO’s appeal of the nonfinal interlocutory order was dismissed
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Laptop
Key Insight: Terminated employee obtained preliminary injunction preventing his former employer from accessing “private” files stored on his work computer or discussing “private” files that were accessed; employer further ordered to provide employee access to his private files to determine which ones he wanted copied; employee prohibited from deleting any information from work computer
Nature of Case: Former assistant attorney general sought damages and injunctive relief
Electronic Data Involved: Employee’s “private” information contained on work computer
Key Insight: Plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction granted; defendants enjoined from destroying, erasing or altering any of its computer-stored information that concerns any of plaintiff’s claims against them
Nature of Case: Trademark infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Computer data
Key Insight: Court denied plaintiff’s request “to go into Ford’s databases and look for any relevant information that might be there,” finding the request for production to be overbroad and unduly burdensome
Nature of Case: Product liability
Electronic Data Involved: Databases
Key Insight: Failure to produce computer data and other discovery abuses warranted imposition of monetary sanctions against defendant ($105,000 paid to plaintiffs and $15,000 paid to clerk of court “for the unnecessary consumption of the court’s time and resources”) and appointment of special master at defendant’s expense for purpose of monitoring its compliance with all further discovery
Nature of Case: Class action brought by veterans for alleged exposure to radiation during service with armed forces
Electronic Data Involved: Two V.A. computer systems (databases)
Key Insight: Plaintiff sanctioned $10,000 for failing to preserve or search email of certain persons; key word search to be narrowed
Nature of Case: Business sued competitors for defamation and unfair competition
Electronic Data Involved: Email, databases (scope of key word search)
Key Insight: Granting motion to compel contact list printed out from defendant’s contact management software program which was not timely included on defendant’s privilege log, court rejected “frivolous” argument that the contact list technically did not exist until it was printed: “For more than thirty years, Fed.R.Civ . P. 34(a) has included data stored on electronic media as being subject to a Rule 34 request. The fact that the data has not been printed out does not mean that the document does not exist. Indeed, if BH’s argument were meritorious, any party could avoid producing damaging documents through the simple expedient of storing them on electronic media and never printing them out.”
Nature of Case: SEC enforcement action
Electronic Data Involved: Email, spreadsheets and contact list
Key Insight: Negative inference not warranted in NTSB board proceeding where computer tapes containing radar data were destroyed pursuant to FAA policy and without notice that pilot would raise issue of near-miss
Nature of Case: Petition for review of order of NTSB revoking pilot’s airline transport certificate
Electronic Data Involved: Tapes containing radar data
Key Insight: Defendant required to produce computerized information; conduct of defendant and technical and complex nature of production warranted appointment of examiner pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 53 to report to the court what materials the defendant possesses and whether defendant produced such material
Nature of Case: Antitrust
Electronic Data Involved: Tapes, files, programs, reports, input and output files
Key Insight: Employer entitled to discover, at its own expense, copies of database on computer disk, code books and user manual created by EEOC’s expert from information produced by employer to allow for effective cross-examination of EEOC’s expert; in addition, employer to pay “fair portion of the fees and expenses incurred” in the past by EEOC for the expert’s work in encoding the requested data and formulating the database
Nature of Case: Consolidated Title VII action brought by individual and EEOC
Electronic Data Involved: Database created by EEOC’s expert from information produced by employer
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