Electronic Discovery Law

Legal issues, news and best practices relating to the discovery of electronically stored information.

1
Catskill Devel., LLC v. Park Place Entm’t Corp., 286 F. Supp. 2d 309 (S.D.N.Y. 2003)
2
Carlton Group, Ltd. v. Tobin, 2003 WL 21782650, fn. 8 (S.D.N.Y. July 31, 2003)
3
In re Carbon Dioxide Ind. Antitrust Litig., 155 F.R.D. 209 (M.D. Fla. 1993)
4
Byrne v. Byrne, 650 N.Y.S.2d 499 (1996)
5
Brick v. HSBC Bank USA, 2004 WL 1811430 (W.D.N.Y. Aug. 11, 2004)
6
Braxton v. Farmer’s Ins. Group, 209 F.R.D. 651 (N.D. Ala. 2002)
7
Bowles v. Nat’l Ass’n of Home Builders, 2004 WL 2203831 (D.D.C. Sept. 30, 2004)
8
Bovis Lend Lease, LMB, Inc. v. Seasons Contracting Corp., 2002 WL 31729693 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 5, 2002)
9
Black & Veatch Int’l Co. v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp., 211 F.R.D. 641 (D. Kan. 2002)
10
Binswanger of Pa., Inc. v. Tru Serv Corp., 2003 WL 22429059 (E.D. Pa. May 21, 2003)

Catskill Devel., LLC v. Park Place Entm’t Corp., 286 F. Supp. 2d 309 (S.D.N.Y. 2003)

Key Insight: After audiotapes which had not been produced by defendants came to light, court granted plaintiff’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(3) motion to vacate earlier summary judgment dismissing tortious interference with prospective business relations claim, and re-opened discovery for 30 days to allow expedited inquiry re discrete issues related to revived claim

Nature of Case: Tortious interference with contract and prospective business relations

Electronic Data Involved: Six audiotapes containing discussions between key players

Carlton Group, Ltd. v. Tobin, 2003 WL 21782650, fn. 8 (S.D.N.Y. July 31, 2003)

Key Insight: Court granted ex parte application for TRO and related relief in order to locate and recover stolen information, and ordered return of laptops and “bit stream copying” of defendants’ computers to preserve deleted data

Nature of Case: Financial services company sued former employees for conspiring to steal confidential and proprietary information and unfair competition

Electronic Data Involved: Client databases and other proprietary information

Byrne v. Byrne, 650 N.Y.S.2d 499 (1996)

Key Insight: Wife’s acts of removing laptop from family home and delivering it to her attorney for safekeeping were not wrongful; court established protocol for inspection and production

Nature of Case: Divorce proceeding

Electronic Data Involved: Financial data stored on laptop provided by husband’s employer

Brick v. HSBC Bank USA, 2004 WL 1811430 (W.D.N.Y. Aug. 11, 2004)

Key Insight: District Court affirmed sanctions award of $147,635.74 imposed by Bankruptcy Court under its inherent powers on law firm representing estate, where among other things, law firm “got caught time and time again with having made misrepresentations about the completeness of what was provided,” even after the evidence indicated otherwise and after additional documents continued to be found

Nature of Case: Bankruptcy proceeding

Electronic Data Involved: Email and documents in electronic format

Braxton v. Farmer’s Ins. Group, 209 F.R.D. 651 (N.D. Ala. 2002)

Key Insight: Non-party subpoena issued by plaintiff to insurance agents for email and electronic documents touching on, relating to or concerning use of consumer credit reports in setting homeowners’ insurance premiums quashed as unduly burdensome, in absence of showing that defendant’s production of such materials was inadequate

Nature of Case: Class action alleging that insurer violated Fair Credit Reporting Act

Electronic Data Involved: Email and documents in electronic format

Bowles v. Nat’l Ass’n of Home Builders, 2004 WL 2203831 (D.D.C. Sept. 30, 2004)

Key Insight: Court ruled that defendant effected waiver of its attorney-client and work product privileges as to all documents on the same subject matter as the privileged documents it gave to plaintiff when she was president, since defendant’s failure to take any legal action to assert its privilege or otherwise to recover the documents for more than a year did not constitute “reasonable steps to reclaim the protected material.” Parties ordered to submit further briefing on the scope of the subject matter waiver.

Nature of Case: Former president of association sued for wrongful termination

Electronic Data Involved: Privileged emails

Bovis Lend Lease, LMB, Inc. v. Seasons Contracting Corp., 2002 WL 31729693 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 5, 2002)

Key Insight: Various emails among claims handlers, supervisors, in-house counsel and outside counsel were protected from discovery by either attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine, or both; however, voluntary production of certain emails waived protections; inadvertent disclosure may waive protections if reasonable precautions were not taken to guard against inadvertent disclosure

Nature of Case: Insurance coverage

Electronic Data Involved: Email

Black & Veatch Int’l Co. v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp., 211 F.R.D. 641 (D. Kan. 2002)

Key Insight: Plaintiff failed to comply with court order by making various misrepresentations about whether all original input files were produced and whether software program changed over time it was used; sanction in form of attorneys’ fees and costs warranted

Nature of Case: Construction litigation

Electronic Data Involved: Software program and input files used to make design calculations

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