Key Insight: Plaintiff ordered to produce portions of database relied upon by its expert for 24 customers at issue in the litigation; but plaintiff need not produce or disclose remainder of 790-customer database unless otherwise ordered by the court
Nature of Case: Business litigation
Electronic Data Involved: Customer data
Key Insight: Trial court properly ordered insurer to answer victim’s interrogatories despite claimed burden; court remarked: “[I]n the three years following the issuance of Boecher, Allstate still has not implemented a computer program or system for keeping track of the information. In fact, Allstate used two of the very same affidavits it used in Boecher to explain that its computer systems did not have the information requested readily accessible. In this day of the computer age, and in light of the Boecher court’s serious emphasis on the need for the very type of information requested, Allstate may want to reconsider adapting its computer system to provide easier access to the requested information.”
Nature of Case: Personal injury
Electronic Data Involved: Information regarding insurer’s relationship with and payments to medical groups where its experts worked as physicians
Key Insight: Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6) depositions re computer systems and data allowed to precede merits discovery
Nature of Case: Antitrust class action
Electronic Data Involved: Information re data, hardware, software of each defendant
Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel as to particular request for production where plaintiff offered to provide defendant a set of portable computer disks (at a cost of $40,000) that contained all the documents that plaintiff produced in separate litigation; since defendant had specifically requested these documents, court would not require plaintiff to cull documents that were responsive to another (more narrow) request
Nature of Case: Dispute over defendant’s credit rating of plaintiff
Electronic Data Involved: Computer disks
Key Insight: Where, after months of discovery disputes, reports upon which defendant urged plaintiff to rely in lieu of full database turned out to be inaccurate, court denied plaintiff’s motion for entry of default judgment for discovery abuse and instead postponed trial so that defendant could produce accurate information; however, court imposed monetary sanctions against defendant representing plaintiff’s legal and expert fees for time spent working with inaccurate data
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Database, reports, electronic data
Key Insight: Supreme Court of Wisconsin quashed as overbroad a “John Doe” subpoena seeking all digital computer information or data maintained by the legislature’s technology services bureau, stored by or on behalf of certain named elected officials, any person who had ever been employed in their offices, as well as anyone who had ever been employed in the legislative caucuses for both parties or, in the alternative, the backup tapes from December 15, 2001, for the entire legislative branch of government
Nature of Case: Criminal investigation relating to political caucuses and actions of certain legislators
Electronic Data Involved: All digital computer information or data, and backup tapes for the entire legislative branch of government
Key Insight: Court denied government’s motion to compel production of opposing party’s rebuttal expert’s proprietary database since rebuttal expert report complied with Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B) and no further disclosures were warranted
Nature of Case: Taxpayer petition for readjustment
Electronic Data Involved: Proprietary database maintained by taxpayer’s rebuttal expert
Key Insight: Dismissal of complaint was appropriate sanction for fraud on the court consisting of plaintiff’s forging email, swearing to its authenticity, and continuing to insist on its authenticity while independent computer expert investigated the matter and ultimately concluded the email was fabricated; plaintiff ordered to pay costs and fees of expert and defendants’ attorney’s fees and costs related to discovery of the fraud
Nature of Case: Breach of contract
Electronic Data Involved: Forged email
Key Insight: Court entered preservation order requiring preservation of all extant backups or images of all servers or personal computers containing disputed software or email; court denied motion to compel imaging of all media potentially containing software or electronic evidence relevant to the claims in the suit, and all images of defendants’ computer storage facilities, drives and servers taken to date, as substantially overbroad
Nature of Case: Copyright infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Backups and images of servers, software and email
Key Insight: Motion to compel production of computer printouts denied as to those constituting work product, granted as to those that were not prepared in anticipation of litigation
Nature of Case: Inmates sued for intentional discrimination in assignment of housing, programs, and administration of discipline
Electronic Data Involved: Computer printouts showing analysis of work locations and ethnicity of inmates
Copyright © 2022, K&L Gates LLP. All Rights Reserved.