FRCP 34(c) Objections – Electronic Discovery Law

Boegh v. Harless (W.D. Ky. 2021)

May 13 2021

Key Insight: The pro se plaintiff was ordered to produce social media (Facebook) content relating to the events at issue in the amended complaint. Based on his public Facebook posts, plaintiff commented extensively on the case and identified evidence and witnesses. Plaintiff argued that defendants already had the information from the public posts, but the court found there is a strong indication plaintiff was withholding relevant and discoverable evidence that was private in his account.

Nature of Case: Civil rights – personal injury

Electronic Data Involved: Social media

Case Summary

Crossman v. Carrington Mortg. Servs., LLC, (M.D. Fla. May 4, 2020)

May 04 2020

Key Insight: Defendant moved to compel social media discovery from plaintiff. The court considered plaintiff’s objections based on relevancy, privacy, and vagueness. Plaintiff did not assert a proportionality argument. The court found that the discovery was relevant – “common sense dictates that information in [plaintiff’s] social medial . . . relates to her contemporaneous mental and emotional states and therefore relates to the injuries she claims she suffered at the hands of [defendant], including loss of enjoyment of life.” As to privacy, a confidentiality agreement suffices to protect plaintiff’s interests. As to vagueness, plaintiff’s counsel can “reasonably and naturally” interpret the requests in view of the claims and defenses through communication with opposing counsel. Lastly, an award of expenses was unwarranted since “reasonable minds can differ on the dispute.”

Nature of Case: Employment Discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: Social Media

Case Summary

Javo Beverage Co. Inc. v. California Extraction Ventures, Inc. (S.D. Cal. 2020).

Apr 29 2020

Key Insight: The court granted defendant’s motion to compel production of filepath information, but allowed defendant to object to producing discrete filepath information if defendant can articulate a good faith basis for the objection, including irrelevance as to time or scope, or if the filepath data is misleading. If any filepath data is not readily accessible, the parties must confer and attempt to reach a cost-effective resolution prior to seeking the court’s involvement. The court also confirmed the parties’ mutual understanding that they are obligated to “preserve ephemeral, deleted, and other related kinds of data where counsel reasonably suspects such data is relevant” to the litigation.

Nature of Case: Trade secret misappropriation

Electronic Data Involved: ESI generally

Case Summary

Lundine v. Gates Corp. (D. Kan. 2020)

Mar 30 2020

Key Insight: Plaintiff moved to compel defendant to produce ESI of class-member pay data in Excel format or native format, or in the alternative, to allow her experts to access the data and download it. Defendant opposed the motion, asserting it had adequately responded by producing the data in PDF format. The court denied plaintiff’s motion. Neither party disputed that defendant produced the information in the form in which it is ordinarily maintained and the data in PDF form is still usable. “[R]equiring defendant to re-produce data in Excel format would be duplicative and unduly burdensome.”

Nature of Case: Wage and Hour Class Action

Electronic Data Involved: Payroll Data

Case Summary

Taylor v. Kilmer (Northern District of Illionis, 2020)

Feb 07 2020

Key Insight: argue that those requests and subpoenas are overly broad

Nature of Case: Motor vehicle accident negligence, personal injury

Electronic Data Involved: medical bills, records, and data for treatment received over a year before incident pertaining to rate of reimbursement

Keywords: subpoena, provider billing structure, medical billing and records, overly broad and burdensome

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Hawkins v. The Kroger Company (District Court of Southern California, 2019)

Sep 16 2019

Key Insight: whether discovery should extend beyond the period of the statute of limitations

Nature of Case: Breach of implied warranty of merchantability

Electronic Data Involved: e-mails

Keywords: label, trans fat, heightened showing

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BARKER v. KAPSCH TRAFFICCOM USA, INC. et al (S.D. Ind., 2019)

Jun 18 2019

Key Insight: Responding party did not meet its burden to show requests were improper because it only responded with general objections

Nature of Case: breach of contract

Electronic Data Involved: emails and business records

Keywords: general objection,

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Adacel, Inc. et al v. Adsync Technologies, Inc. (M.D. Fla., 2019)

Apr 30 2019

Key Insight: general objections overruled and defendant ordered to produce records relating to profits, but does not have to disclose all documents relating to “methods of calculating” profits beyond what is necessary to understand

Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets

Electronic Data Involved: business records re profits

Keywords: general objection,

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Klein v. Affiliated Group, Inc. (D. Minn., 2019)

Mar 22 2019

Key Insight: communication between agency and client relevant but too burdensome in relation to claims

Nature of Case: Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

Electronic Data Involved: communication between collection agency and hospitals

Keywords: hospital collections

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Wentz v. Project Veritas et al (M.D. Fla., 2019)

Feb 22 2019

Key Insight: objection that requests are not relevant because requesting party’s defense is meritless is sanctionable

Nature of Case: interception of communication, defamation

Electronic Data Involved: email, text messages, calendars

Keywords: improper objection sanctioned

View Case Opinion

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