Deleted Data – Page 13 – Electronic Discovery Law

YCA, LLC v. Berry, 2004 WL 1093385 (N.D. Ill May 7, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Court denied defendant’s motion to strike the testimony of plaintiff’s computer expert (who recovered “plethora” of deleted documents from defendant’s old YCA computer) since any delay in disclosing the expert and the recovered material was justified given defendant’s failure to disclose that his old computer might contain relevant evidence

Nature of Case: Breach of nondisclosure agreement, tortious interference

Electronic Data Involved: Deleted documents, computer hard drive

Anderson v. Crossroads Capital Partners, LLC, 2004 WL 256512 (D. Minn. Feb. 10, 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Plaintiff’s use of Cyberscrub data wiping software prior to court-ordered inspection of her computer and after agreeing on the record that she would not purge her hard drive or delete any documents, and her misrepresentations about age of hard drive, were not sufficiently egregious to warrant dismissal but did warrant an adverse inference instruction

Nature of Case: Sexual harassment and whistleblower claims by former employee

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive of plaintiff’s personal computer

R.S. Creative, Inc. v. Creative Cotton, Ltd., 89 Cal. Rptr. 2d 353 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Trial court properly imposed terminating sanctions against plaintiff for egregious discovery abuses, including the deletion of files from hard drives after plaintiff had stipulated that computers and diskettes would not be operated or touched until defendants’ computer expert could examine them

Nature of Case: Breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive, computer files

Arista Records, Inc. v. Sakfield Holding Co. S.L., 314 F. Supp. 2d 27 (D.D.C. 2004)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Since defendant had destroyed electronic records and failed to produce the very records that would provide evidence of its contacts within D.C., even after being ordered by court to do so, court denied defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction; court declined to impose any sanctions, but said plaintiff could bring a motion in the future

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: Electronic information on servers

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

Dec 01 2004

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

Ill. Tool Works, Inc. v. Metro Mark Prods., Ltd., 43 F. Supp. 2d 951 (N.D. Ill. 1999)

Dec 01 2004

Key Insight: Defendant’s failure to preserve integrity of computer (dropping it repeatedly and apparent tampering, including disconnecting internal cables prior to court-ordered inspection) and failure to produce responsive electronic material warranted monetary sanctions

Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets

Electronic Data Involved: Hard drive, deleted files, electronically stored invoices

Tag:Deleted Data