Motion to Compel – Page 44 – Electronic Discovery Law

SFP Works LLC v. Buffalo Armory LLC, No. 14-13575, 2015 WL 7294580 (E.D. Mich. Nov. 19, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where Plaintiff alleged it could not access the data produced by defendant?even with the use of specialized software provided by Defendant and the assistance of a third party vendor?and refused the options provided by defendant insisting instead that defendant must re-load the date to ensure it was not corrupted, the court noted Plaintiff?s failure to timely seek a solution to the discovery problems or to mitigate the difficulties by pursuing any of the offered remedial measures and denied the motion to compel access to the at-issue information

Nature of Case: Patent infringement

Electronic Data Involved: ESI (“operational data”)

Lutzeier v. Citigroup Inc., No. 4:14-cv-00183-RLW, 2015 WL 430196 (E.D. Mo. Feb 2, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Addressing Plaintiff?s motion to add custodians, the court granted the motion, in part, but declined to compel the addition of high-level executives absent a showing that they had ?unique or personal knowledge of the subject matter that warrants their information?; Court found that the current ?search criteria adequately ensure[d]? the production of relevant documents and declined Plaintiff?s request for additional search terms except the phrase ?consent order? where confusion existed as to the existence of ?other? consent orders relevant to the case; where plaintiff was unsatisfied with Defendant?s production of more than 46,000 documents ?without providing any indication as to which documents are responsive to which of Plaintiff?s fifty-eight (58 ) enumerated requests,? but where the defendant represented that their production was ?fully text-searchable and contain[s] metadata permitting Plaintiff to identify, among other things, the custodians of the document, recipients, date and other key information,? the court found that the production was ?in a reasonably useable form or forms and/or the production is searchable, sortable and paired with relevant metadata? and thus was compliant with the parties? ESI agreement and with Rule 34

Nature of Case: Wrongful discharge; Age Discrimination; Dodd Frank; Sarbanes-Oxley

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Weidenhamer v. Expedia, Inc., No. C14-1239RAJ, 2015 WL 7158212 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 13, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court denied motion to compel Defendant to search for documents from non-U.S. points of sale where the court found such documents would be of ?marginal relevance at best? and that the burden and expense of production outweighed the benefit, noting that such production would ?vastly expand? an already voluminous production, would entail additional translation costs, and would ?potentially require the involvement of additional entities or foreign law??; court also declined to compel Defendant to conduct searches of Account Representatives for 170 different airlines where Plaintiff failed to establish that the expanded search would reveal additional relevant information and noting that the productions of third party air carriers had not revealed any ?glaring deficiencies? in Defendant?s production

Nature of Case: Class action

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

East Bridge Lofts Prop. Assoc., Inc. v. Crum & Forster Specialty Ins. Co., No. 2:14-cv-2567-RMC, 2015 WL 12831731 (D.S.C. June 18, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where Plaintiff sought forensic examination of email accounts not searched by Defendants, the court acknowledged the ?expense and difficulty? of such examinations and reasoned that ?mere skepticism? that relevant information has not been produced is insufficient to warrant such drastic measures and thus denied the request; court reasoned Defendant had failed to reveal the search terms utilized to identify responsive documents in searches of three other email accounts and that Plaintiffs had established the relevancy of all of the requested accounts and ordered the parties to meet and confer as to an appropriate search methodology for all accounts

Nature of Case: Insurance litigation: bad faith

Electronic Data Involved: Forensic examination of email accounts

S.E.C. v. Bonan Huang, No. 15-269, 2015 WL 5611644 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 23, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court denied ?Plaintiffs? motion to compel Defendant s to disclose their secret personal passcodes for smartphones owned by their former employer who, as a matter of policy, required their employees to keep their personal passcodes secret from everyone? upon concluding that ?[s]ince the passcodes to Defendants? work-issued smartphones are not corporate records, the act of producing their personal passcodes is testimonial in nature and Defendants properly invoke their fifth Amendment privilege? and that the ?foregone conclusion doctrine? did not apply ?as the SEC Cannot show with ?reasonable particularity? the existence or location of the documents it seeks?

Electronic Data Involved: Passcodes or passwords to smartphones

Artt v. Orange Lake Country Club Realty, Inc., No. 6:14-cv-956-Orl-40TBS, 2015 WL 4911086 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 17, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: In FLSA case seeking compensation for ?off the clock? work, court found that defendant?s request for any social media activity posted between 7AM and 7PM on any date between June 19, 2011 and Plaintiff?s termination was ?on its face overbroad, unduly burdensome and unreasonable?

Nature of Case: FLSA

Electronic Data Involved: Social media

Siriano v. Goodman Mfg. Co., L.P., No. 2:14-cv-1131, 2015 WL 8259548 (S.D. Ohio Dec. 9, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Applying the proportionality factors in Rule 26(b)(1) (including specific contemplation of Defendants? ?corporate resources? and the ?potentially very large? amount in controversy) and reasoning that the Sixth Circuit has held that ?limiting the scope of discovery is appropriate when compliance ?would prove unduly burdensome,? not merely time-consuming or expensive? and that Defendants failed to propose an alternative method of discovery ?enabling some lesser degree of production,? the court directed the parties to cooperate and indicated it would schedule a conference to discuss ?whether and to what extent discovery should proceed in phases?

Nature of Case: Putative class action re: design or manufacturing defect

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Hespe v. City of Chicago, No. 13 C 7998, 2016 WL 7240754 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 15, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where a magistrate judge found the requested inspection of Plaintiff?s devices was not proportional to the needs of the case ?especially? in light of Plaintiff?s privacy and confidentiality interests despite the production of thousands of text messages by Plaintiffs? mother (which Plaintiff confirmed she had sent to her for safekeeping) and alleged inconsistent testimony from the Plaintiff, the District Court Judge overruling Defendants? objections acknowledged the need for caution in allowing such inspections (including by citing the 2006 Advisory Committee Notes to Fed. R. Civ. P. 34) absent evidence of a responding party?s failure as to its discovery obligations or a ?substantiated connection? between the at-issue device and the claims of the case and concluded that neither had been established in the present case

Nature of Case: Employment discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, text messages

Case Citation: Nucci v. Target Corp., 162 So.3d 146 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2015).

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Circuit Court denied petition for certiorari relief to quash Trial Court order compelling discovery of photographs from Plaintiff?s Facebook account, finding no departure from the essential requirements of law, because the photographs were ?powerfully relevant to the damage issues in the lawsuit,? Plaintiff?s privacy interest in them were minimal because ?photographs posted on a social networking site are neither privileged nor protected by any right of privacy, regardless of any privacy settings that the user may have established,? and the Stored Communications Act ?does not apply to individuals who the use the communications services provided.?

Nature of Case: Personal Injury

Electronic Data Involved: Facebook/social media photographs

Farley v. Callais & Sons LLC, No. 14-2550, 2015 WL 4730729 (E.D. La. Aug. 10, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court declined to compel production of log in information and all Facebook information posted since the underlying accident but granted the motion in part and compelled the production of certain categories of information to be identified by a review of Plaintiff?s account by his counsel; courts also ordered submission of sworn declaration that all such information was produced and that counsel ensured preservation of the Facebook materials lest a dispute arise in future

Nature of Case: Personal injury

Electronic Data Involved: Social Media

Tag:Motion to Compel