FRCP 26(b)(2)(C) Limitations – Page 17 – Electronic Discovery Law

David v. Signal Int., LLC, 2010 WL 2723180 (E.D. La. July 6, 2010)

Dec 01 2010

Key Insight: Court declined to hold defendant in contempt for its unilateral redactions of alleged personal and confidential information but, upon evidence of over-redacting, ordered plaintiffs to identify approximately 3000 documents (a number provided by plaintiffs) to be sent to defendant for verification of proper redacting and for the parties to confer to fashion an appropriate protective with regard to the documents redacted and/or withheld on the ground proprietary or business confidentiality privilege

Nature of Case: Class action

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Biax Corp. v. Nvidia Corp., 2010 WL 3777540 (D. Colo. Sept. 21, 2010)

Dec 01 2010

Key Insight: In an opinion addressing numerous discovery issues, the court granted in part plaintiff?s motion to compel and ordered the parties to submit a status report, preferably jointly, proposing a discreet number of proposed custodians and search terms, and to submit a joint-cost sharing agreement ?for the hefty cost of searching electronic files as represented by [defendant] with an accompanying affidavit in support of the anticipated costs?; court reasoned in footnote that ?justice require[ed]? cost sharing in light of the expense of searching electronic files and in light of the amount of documentation already produced by the defendant

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

BBVA Compass Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Olson, 2010 WL 4004516 (D. Colo. Oct. 12, 2010)

Dec 01 2010

Key Insight: Where plaintiff presented evidence that searching for the information requested by defendants could exceed 400 hours and where the request was duplicative and other sources of information existed, the court found that ?the burden on plaintiff ? is heavier than Defendants? alleged need for the files warrants? and granted plaintiff?s request for a Protective Order

Nature of Case: Claims for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of the duty of loyalty and breach of contract, among others

Electronic Data Involved: ESI/customer files

Dilley v. Metro. Life Ins., Co., 256 F.R.D. 643 (N.D. Cal. 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Upon finding that because of the ?relative inaccessibility of the information sought?responding to the request would be overly burdensome? where defendant was unable to query its database for the information requested and upon finding that the information sought would not satisfy plaintiff?s purpose without additional information, court found that defendant had established that ?the significance of the discovery to the issues in the present case is substantially outweighed by the burden? and granted defendant?s motion for a protective order

Nature of Case: Wrongful denial of claim for disability benefits

Electronic Data Involved: Database contents

Ford Motor Co. v. U.S., 2009 WL 2176657 (E.D. Mich. July 21, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court granted in part and denied in part plaintiff?s motion to compel the government to produce documents in nine categories, including compelling the government to provide declarations outlining its search methodology and efforts and finding that the government need not attempt to recover emails that had been overwritten because of undue burden and costs, among other things; court rejected government argument that it had not produced a privilege loge because ?producing such a log would defeat [its] unduly burdensome objections? and ordered an ?adequately detailed privilege log for the responsive documents that it withholds from production?

Nature of Case: Action to recover interest accrued on overpayments of corporate income tax

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Donnelly v. NCO Fin. Sys., Inc., 2009 WL 5551377 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 16, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court granted motion to compel defendant to produce a list of all persons it called on cellular telephones within particular area codes, despite defendant?s claim that such production would be unduly burdensome and minimally probative and that it would need to create special programs to extract the information which would take ?several hundred hours,? where court determined plaintiff?s need for the information outweighed the burden in producing it

Nature of Case: Class action

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

In re Motor Fuel Temperature Sales Practices Litig., 2009 WL 959491 (D. Kan. Apr. 3, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court denied defendants? motion for an order relieving them of their obligation to ?review and log documents created after the commencement of litigation relating to communications with attorneys about this lawsuit,? despite defendants arguments of extreme burden, where defendants offered no case law in support of their position , where not all documents created post litigation and involving an attorney would be protected from production as privileged, and where defendants made no effort to address the lesser burden of reviewing only potentially relevant email; sympathetic to defendants? arguments that logging each message would be burdensome, court permitted defendants to categorically describe privileged communications in log

Electronic Data Involved: Email communications created after commencement of litigation

Loius Vuitton Malletier, S.A., v. Akanoc Solutions, Inc., 2009 WL 1312898 (N.D. Cal. May 12, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where plaintiff?s initial investigation into publicly posted Internet content evidencing offers for counterfeit products revealed that several previously identified addresses belonged to the same individual and where plaintiff identified additional potentially infringing sites, court granted plaintiff?s motion to modify the court ordered inspection protocol to allow investigation beyond the 67 websites previously identified; court rejected defendants? argument that modification should be denied as burdensome where plaintiff was to bear the cost of the searching and rejected defendants privacy concerns in light of expert?s articulated methodology for pinpointing only potentially relevant material

Nature of Case: Trademark and copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Website Content

Bonn v. City of Omaha, 2009 WL 1740783 (D. Neb. June 18, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court found the requested electronic discovery ?not reasonably accessible? due to burden and cost and because the expense of the discovery outweighed the likely benefit and denied plaintiff?s motion to compel production of relevant emails where defendant stated they had already retrieved and produced all responsive emails from key individuals containing search terms proposed by plaintiff?s counsel

Nature of Case: Wrongful discharge

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Patterson v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 2009 WL 1107740 (D. Kan. Apr. 23, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court indicated reluctance to intervene in discovery dispute regarding contents of back up tapes where parties failed to properly confer regarding electronic discovery but, where defendants offered to search back up tapes for relevant emails from two custodians on three specific dates, court ordered the search and prescribed search terms to employ; where the estimated labor to conduct the limited search of the back up tapes would not be excessive or unduly burdensome, court ordered defendant to bear cost

Electronic Data Involved: Back up tapes

Tag:FRCP 26(b)(2)(C) Limitations