Johnson v. Ford Motor Co. (S.D. W. Va. , 2017)
Key Insight: sanctions
Nature of Case: class action
Electronic Data Involved: source code
Keywords: sanctions, material misrepresentation, attorney’s fees, expert fees, costs, inherent authority
Baher Abdelgawad v. Mark Mangieri (W.D. Pa., 2017)
Key Insight: Party failed to take reasonable steps to preserve ESI, but since plaintiff never made a proportionate measure request to cure the prejudice, and since defendant made good faith attempts to provide access, no spoliation is found.
Nature of Case: breach of fiduciary duty, defamation, trademark
Electronic Data Involved: QuickBook files in digital form + other documents
Keywords: spoliation sanctions, good faith attempt, proportionate measure
Abdelgawad v. Mangieri, CA No. 14-1641 (W.D. Pa. Dec. 22, 2017)
Key Insight: spoliation, adverse inference
Nature of Case: breach of fiduciary duty, defamation
Electronic Data Involved: QuickBook files
Keywords: adverse inference, intent to deprive, spoliation, spoliation factors, sanctions
Nelson v. Schultz (7th Cir., 2017)
Key Insight: Judges should weigh lesser sanctions before dismissing a case, but are not required to.
Nature of Case: Breach of Contract, Torts
Electronic Data Involved: Tax and bank statements
Keywords: failure to respond, discovery sanctions, discovery misconduct
Klein v. Board of Trustees (D. Alaska, 2017)
Key Insight: ESI does not need to be produced if it is from sources not reasonably accessible on account of undue burden or cost.
Nature of Case: medical fees
Electronic Data Involved: medicare documents, etc
Keywords: undue burden, not reasonably accessible, third party requests
Hurd v. City of Lincoln, No. 4:16-CV-3029 (D. Neb. Dec. 21, 2017)
Key Insight: No produced emails were from the Mayor. Mayor’s deposition not necessary or proportional to needs of the case.
Nature of Case: employment discrimination and retaliation
Electronic Data Involved: Over 6,500 emails and attachments produced by defendant.
Keywords: Relevant and proportional, proportionality, mere conjecture and conclusory statements.
Leidig v. Buzzfeed, Inc., No. 16 Civ. 542 (VM) (GWG) (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 19, 2017)
Key Insight: delayed legal hold and missing metadata caused prejudice; sanctions imposed such that plaintiffs may not use the date in a document to prove document creation date and defendant may offer archived websites from the internet into evidence
Nature of Case: defamation, libel
Electronic Data Involved: websites, emails, metadata
Keywords: metadata, legal hold, spoliation of websites
Golon, Inc. v. Selective Ins. Co. (W.D. PA, 2017)
Key Insight: communications that occurred outside of the mediation but involve the mediator are not protected by the mediation privilege
Nature of Case: Insurance Bad Faith
Electronic Data Involved: documents used in mediation that Defendant claim to be protected by mediation privilege
Keywords: mediation privilege, reconsideration, under seal
Linior v. Polson, No. 1:17cv0013 (E.D. Va. Dec. 6, 2017)
Key Insight: Lack of prejudice or evidence of intent to deprive. Denied motion for dispositive sanctions under Rule 37(e). No evidence that higher quality recordings actually existed and were not preserved.
Nature of Case: Excessive force used during security screening
Electronic Data Involved: closed circuit video recordings
Keywords: preserve video recording, excessive force at the security screening.