FRCP 26(b)(2)(C) Limitations – Page 19 – Electronic Discovery Law

Covad Commc?ns Co. v. Revonet, Inc., 2009 WL 5377698 (D.D.C. Aug. 25, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where plaintiff represented that defendant had not fulfilled production obligations pursuant to the court?s order, court ordered defendant to respond to questions as to the completeness of its production and other related topics and affirmed its prior order requiring the re-production of 35,000 pages of emails previously produced in hard copy, despite the alleged burden of doing so; court also ordered defendant to respond to questions regarding the production of ESI, including spreadsheets, previously produced in hard copy and noted, ?Understandably, taking an electronic document such as a spreadsheet, printing it, cutting it up, and telling one’s opponent to paste it back together again, when the electronic document can be produced with a keystroke is madness in the world in which we live.?

Nature of Case: Misappropriation and conversion of trade secret information

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Dawe v. Corrections, USA, 2009 WL 3233883 (E.D. Colo. Oct. 1, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Citing a ?pervasive? level of ?distrust that permeates this litigation? and plaintiff?s ?adamant refusal to permit even a limited inspection? and citing defendants? representations that additional, relevant information remained on the laptop and that the laptop had been ?forensically cleaned,? court granted defendants? motion to compel inspection of plaintiff?s laptop but ordered defendants to bear the cost – if inspection revealed relevant information was withheld, court invited a motion to shift some or all of the costs to plaintiff(s)

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, laptop

Gracebrothers, Ltd. v. Siena Holdings, Inc., 2009 WL 1547821 (Del. Ch. June 2, 2009) (Unpublished)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where, in response to a request for its board of directors? emails, defendants did not ask directors to search their emails but rather determined through a series of questions that no unique emails existed and argued that the emails were already produced when they produced the ?sender-side versions,? court found that the added production would not be overly burdensome or expensive and ordered the production of any emails reasonably related to the relevant request

Nature of Case: Complaint challenging a reverse stock split in violation of Deleware law

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

Bellinger v. Astrue, 2009 WL 2496476 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 14, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Court declined to compel production of detailed information regarding defendant?s electronically stored information and efforts to search the same where such production would be ?extremely burdensome? and unlikely to be of significant value, especially in light of defendants prior production of information regarding the relevant information systems and searches and because plaintiff had not established prejudice as a result of alleged deficiencies in defendants production, among other reasons; footnote addressing format of production reasoned hard copy production of ESI was acceptable because hard copy was a reasonably useable format, because production in electronic format would be burdensome, and because plaintiff?s counsel was already familiar with the hard copy production such that production in electronic form would be ?redundant and wasteful?

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Information related to information systems and searches for relevant ESI

United Consumers Club, Inc. v. Prime Time Mktg. Mgmt., Inc., 2009 WL 3200540 (N.D. Ind. Sept. 25, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where request for production was unduly burdensome in light of the cost of production and necessary labor to comply, despite the requesting party?s attempt to narrow the scope, and where the court found the request overly broad and that it sought information irrelevant to the litigation, court declined to compel production in response to the particular request, but granted in part other portions of the motion to compel

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Averett v. Honda of Am. Mfg., Inc., 2009 WL 799638 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 24, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where the burden of searching all possible locations for a mention of plaintiff was overly burdensome in light of plaintiff?s 17 year history with the company and the unlikely possibility that additional relevant information would be discovered and where plaintiff failed to identify with particularity any documents she believed to exist or category of information likely to contain relevant information, among other things, court denied plaintiff?s motion to compel, citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Lawson v. Plantation Gen. Hosp., L.P., 2009 WL 2868891 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 27, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Despite the ?clearly burdensome? process required to restore, review and produce the requested ESI, court ordered production of a specific category of ESI, where ?fairness demand[ed]? plaintiff have an opportunity to review? it, but ordered that if plaintiff continued to desire production of the remaining categories ?for which plaintiff ha[d] a lesser need, in light of all of the other discovery in this matter,? plaintiff must pay half the cost

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

In re Zurn Plex Plumbing Prods. Liab. Litig., 2009 WL 1606653 (D. Minn. June 5, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where defendants objected to plaintiffs’ motion to compel arguing the requested search of emails and various computer drives would be unduly burdensome, court dismissed attorney?s affidavit in support of such objections as ?not compelling evidence? where attorney was not ?an expert on document search and retrieval? but, ?in an effort to control costs,? limited defendants? search to particular locations and ordered the use of 14 terms as supplied by the court or agreed upon by the parties; court invited defendants to renew their objections if the search nonetheless proved overly burdensome by submitting evidence, including evidence from ?computer experts,? in support of those objections

Nature of Case: Claims that defendants’ choice of plumbing fittings caused damage to plaintiffs’ property

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

In re: Application of Operadora DB Mexico, S.A. De C.V., 2009 2435750 (M.D. Fla. May 28, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: Where non-party to international arbitration sought to quash subpoena on grounds including the undue burden of searching for and producing electronic discovery, magistrate judge recommended that electronic data previously produced by non-party in prior litigation should be produced but that the parties should meet and confer regarding the production of additional data and should specifically address including: the medium on which the data was stored, the volume of data, the practicability of searching the data, and the likely costs associated with production

Nature of Case: International arbitration over franchise rights in Mexico

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition v. Salazar, 2009 WL 1703232 (D.D.C. June 18, 2009)

Dec 01 2009

Key Insight: ?Unconvinced? that defendants had not unduly limited the scope of their search for responsive documents, court ordered additional searching but limited the scope of plaintiff?s proposed terms and parameters and ordered the parties to meet and confer regarding: an agreeable search methodology consistent with the court?s opinion, the identification of potentially responsive databases and custodians likely to maintain relevant information, and ?a list of search directives? likely to result in the identification of relevant documents

Nature of Case: Constitutional claims

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

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