Key Insight: Court denied defendants’ FRCP 60(b) motion for relief from discovery orders, and ordered defendants to comply with prior orders and, among other things, produce certain database in native format, and produce requested email and Excel spreadsheet
Nature of Case: Class action brought by farm workers
Electronic Data Involved: Database, email and spreadsheet
Key Insight: Where defendant asserted that certain data was ?dumped? from its computer system on an ?automatic and periodic basis,? but failed to provide a date or time period when such data was deleted or state whether a diligent effort was made to obtain such information in either electronic or paper format, court found that further discovery was necessary before it could determine whether spoliation sanctions were appropriate and ordered defendant to provide information on when alleged ?data dump? occurred, what information was deleted, and whether backup tapes and/or paper records exist that may provide requested information
Nature of Case: Putative class action
Electronic Data Involved: Information pertaining to the number of prospective class members, including their names and addresses
Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel answers to multi-part interrogatory seeking each email address, mobile phone number, internet username, and instant messaging username used by any employee, associate, partner, paralegal, shareholder or other person who worked with defendant and was involved in the provision, referral or advertisement of legal services connected to the disputed service mark or any permutation thereof, finding it unduly broad, burdensome and not limited to the discovery of relevant matters
Nature of Case: Service mark infringement claims
Electronic Data Involved: Email addresses and user names
Key Insight: Where parties had no prior agreement about the manner in which documents and ESI were to be produced and plaintiff did not specify format in requests for production, court found that defendants had the right under Rule 34 to choose the option of producing their documents and ESI as kept in the usual course of business and declined to order defendants to identify by Bates Numbers the documents and ESI that were responsive to each particular request for production
Nature of Case: Patent infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference, and breach of contract
Electronic Data Involved: Documents and ESI
Key Insight: Even if database was incomplete and potentially unhelpful, court found that plaintiff was nonetheless entitled to information contained in the database since it did have some value and was relevant to plaintiff?s damages case, and its production did not appear to involved undue cost or complexity
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Database
Key Insight: In order issued after parties’ status hearing on production of electronic documents, court recounted history of discovery conferences and orders addressing defendants’ production, including court’s prior order directing defendants to produce all emails tagged by the search term “transfer price” whether deemed relevant or not after completing a privilege review, and concluded that, since plaintiffs had not shown that need for further electronic discovery outweighed burdens and costs of retrieving and producing such information, and had not shown that defendants were withholding or ?cherry picking? relevant emails, plaintiffs would bear the costs of all additional email searches, if any
Nature of Case: Breach of contract
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Key Insight: Court granted plaintiff’s motion to compel and denied defendant’s request to shift costs of production to plaintiff, since defendant provided no information about whether and how such information was “inaccessible” or any other information relevant to cost-shifting determination under Zubulake III; court encouraged parties to agree on most efficient means of production and noted that plaintiff had indicated willingness to provide high capacity storage devices
Nature of Case: Copyright infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Adult video content; website traffic information
Key Insight: Denying motion to compel plaintiff to produce documents listed on privilege log, court nonetheless found log inadequate and ordered plaintiff to submit an amended privilege log and, further, to identify whether or not each email listed is a ?string? or ?strand? email and, if so, to list each email within a strand as a separate entry in the privilege log
Nature of Case: Allegations of sexual abuse and harassment
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Key Insight: Where defendant produced employment statistics from its database on a CD, but not in the format that plaintiffs wanted, court found that defendant had complied with Rule 34(b) requirement that ESI be produced ?in a form or forms in which it is ordinarily maintained or in a form or forms that are reasonably usable,? and denied plaintiffs? motion to compel and for sanctions
Nature of Case: Employment discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Employment statistics
Key Insight: Where responsive emails which had been inadvertently omitted from initial production as a result of human error in manual search were promptly produced after being mentioned in deposition, court ordered defendant to submit a declaration certifying that all non-privileged documents had been produced and detailing what defendants and their employees did to ensure a complete production
Nature of Case: Trademark infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Copyright © 2022, K&L Gates LLP. All Rights Reserved.