FRCP 34(b) Procedure or Format – Page 7

Frye v. CSX Transp., Inc., No. 14-cv-11996, 2016 WL 2758268 (E.D. Mich. May 12, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Court entered order requiring production of software necessary to review responsive data and ordered that either Defendant would ?provide Plaintiff with a laptop computer loaded with a copy of the responsive data and the software necessary to review that data, to be used solely for the purposes of this litigation and to be returned to Defendants once the litigation is complete? or that Plaintiff could procure a license for the necessary software and be reimbursed by Defendant

Nature of Case: Wrongful death

Electronic Data Involved: Software necessary to review responsive data

Wai Feng Trading Co. v. Quick Fitting, Inc., Nos. 13-33S, 13-56S, 2016 WL 4184014 (D.R.I. June 14, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Following several extensions of discovery, court addressed motion to compel production of documents and email in native format and, noting that a particular format was not requested and that the parties? had consistently produced documents in hard copy or in searchable PDF format, found that only two documents ?arguably might contain metadata that could be relevant? and ordered that those documents be produced, but shifted the costs to the requesting party

Nature of Case: Theft of intellectual property, breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: Emails, database, ESI

Sky Med. Supply Inc. v. SCS Support Claim Serv. Inc., No. 12- 6383, 2016 WL 4703656 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 7, 2016)

Dec 01 2016

Key Insight: Magistrate judge denied defendant?s motion to compel plaintiff to organize and label its document production ?so that it corresponds to the categories in the request? because the discovery documents were immediately available for inspection at plaintiff counsel?s office in electronic format already organized, identifiable, and searchable by claim number; defendants needing only to execute claims number searches to identify documents. Thus, the court concluded that unless and until an inspection is undertaken and shown to be unduly burdensome, the plaintiff?s offer to permit inspection of database comports with ?both the letter and spirit of rule 34.?

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Midwest Feeders, Inc. v. The Bank of Franklin (S.D. Mississippi, 2016)

Jul 19 2016

Key Insight: if images of hard drives is sufficient prodcution of the hard drives themselves

Nature of Case: Fraud, conversion of instruments, failure to exercise ordinary care

Electronic Data Involved: all computers midwest obtained and the information on those computers at the time they were obtained

Keywords: hard drives, forensic imaging

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Gade v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (District of Vermont, 2016)

Jun 06 2016

Key Insight: When the productions of underlying information (exact Excel formulas in this case) may disclose proprietary information, a supplemental disclosure explaining the underlying reasons may be a suitable replacement

Nature of Case: Automobile insurance coverage

Electronic Data Involved: Excel spreadsheet formulas

Keywords: Excel, formulas, moot, metadata, award of sanctions, expenses, fees

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First Fin. Sec., Inc v. Lee (D. Minn, 2016)

Mar 08 2016

Key Insight: Magistrate recommended sanctions for defendants’ willful failure to comply with his discovery order. No finding of bad faith.

Nature of Case: Breach of contract.

Electronic Data Involved: Defendant emails and text messages.

Keywords: “Strong circumstantial evidence” that the defendants had concealed documents. Adverse inference instructions and legal costs imposed by court.

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Stormo v. City of Sioux Falls, No. 12-04057 (D. S.D. Feb. 19, 2016)

Feb 19 2016

Key Insight: Providing a document index is not overly burdensome. Production of metadata cannot be compelled without showing that metadata is relevant..

Nature of Case: violation of civil rights as a landowner

Electronic Data Involved: metadata, electronically stored data, document index

Keywords: adequacy of production, metadata relevancy

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Granados v. Traffic Bar and Restaurant, Inc. (S.D.N.Y., 2015)

Dec 30 2015

Key Insight: if sanctions can be granted for inconsistent and incomplete response from opposing party

Nature of Case: violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law

Electronic Data Involved: initial interrogatories and verifications

Keywords: spoliation, sanctions, default judgment, defunct business, unreachable party

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Arkansas River Power Auth. v. Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Grp., Inc., No. 14-cv-00368-CMA-NYW, 2015 WL 2128312 (D. Colo. May 5, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Addressing several disputes, court concluded that parties having agreed on an ESI production ?must only comply with Rule 34(b)(2)(E)(ii)? and that the question was therefore whether the defendant ?produced its ESI in the form in which it is ordinarily maintained or in a reasonably usable form or forms. The rule clearly requires one or the other, but not both.?; where defendant produced majority of its documents in a reasonably usable form (TIFF), court declined to compel production of additional metadata

Nature of Case: Breach of contract and related claims

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Am. Fed. Of Musicians of the U.S. and Canada v. Skodam Films, LLC, NO. 3:15-mc-122-M-BN, 2015 WL 7771078 (N.D. Tex. Dec. 3, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court concluded non-party?s objections to the at-issue subpoena were subject to Rule 34 requirements for objections and, addressing the non-party?s claims of overbreadth and burden, modified the subpoena upon finding that the document requests were ?facially overbroad and pose[d] an undue burden? because they called for the production of ?apparently every document? related to the making of the at-issue movie

Nature of Case: Breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: Third party discovery, including ESI

Tag:FRCP 34(b) Procedure or Format