Tag:Data Preservation

Key Insight: Despite acknowledging defendant?s failure to implement a litigation hold until at least 5 years after it first anticipated litigation, the court denied plaintiff?s motion for sanctions where the quantity and quality of the documents produced by defendant established that relevant information was ?diligently preserved? pursuant to defendant?s document retention policy and where plaintiff failed to establish that it had been prejudiced or that its ability to effectively prepare for trial had been impeded

Nature of Case: Hatch-Waxman patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, emails

Key Insight: Court rejected plaintiff?s assertion that her January 22, 2009 letter to human resources put defendants on notice of its duty to preserve where the letter complained about her manager but did not threaten litigation and instead suggested ?a non-litigious resolution,? where plaintiff testified that she had no intention of suing at the time she sent the letter, where plaintiff waited over ten months after sending the letter to bring the instant litigation, and where the manager?s testimony that he thought the letter could give rise to legal ramifications was not sufficient to trigger the corporation?s duty to preserve

Nature of Case: Failure to accomodate, retaliation in violation of ADA

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Key Insight: Court found duty to preserve arose upon defendant?s consultation with counsel regarding possible infringement on plaintiff?s patent but abated upon the parties? successful negotiation of licensing agreement; court found that defendant had no control and thus no obligation to preserve certain documents from an employee of a Hong-Kong based affiliate; regarding an email folder accidentally deleted following inadvertent ?exposure? to automated purge function, court declined to find the loss was a result of negligence and found that plaintiff failed to establish the relevance of information lost and declined to impose sanctions

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, emails

Key Insight: Where defendant destroyed relevant audio recordings of City Council meetings despite anticipation of litigation but argued that the destruction was allowed under state law (which controlled the relevant retention period for such recordings), among other things, the court found that the tapes had been destroyed ?with a reckless disregard? of the duty to preserve which constituted bad faith and ordered an adverse inference establishing that if the tapes were available, they would have contained evidence favorable to the plaintiff

Nature of Case: Land Use/Zoning

Electronic Data Involved: Recordings of City Council meetings

Key Insight: Where the general manager of the defendant Red Roof Inn claimed to have attempted to preserve video surveillance footage by asking for it to be copied but alleged that she later discovered that the footage was not copied and that the original footage had been automatically recorded over by that time, the court found, ?based on overwhelming evidence of Red Roof?s cavalier attitude toward its discovery obligations,? that defendant?s spoliation was grossly negligent and ordered an adverse inference and that defendant pay plaintiff?s reasonable attorneys? fees and costs associated with the preparation for the motion for sanctions

Nature of Case: Unlawful detention and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Surveillance footage