Policy on Routine Records Management and Retention – Page 2

Brittney Gobble Photography, LLC v. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (D. Md. 2020)

Apr 09 2020

Key Insight: Plaintiff, a professional photographer, filed a motion for spoliation sanctions against the defendant, claiming the deletion of emails were crucial to the claims and defenses in the litigation. The court denied plaintiff’s motion, finding: there is no evidence that the emails at issue actually existed, and an inference that they did not exist; if the emails existed, there is no evidence that the defendant lost or destroyed any emails in order to prevent plaintiff from using them in the litigation; and plaintiff is not prejudiced by the purported loss. Plaintiff never proved that the purported emails existed and to succeed on a spoliation of evidence motion, mere speculation is not enough.

Nature of Case: Copyright infringement

Electronic Data Involved: Emails

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

View Case Opinion

Nevis v. Rideout Memorial Hospital, et al. (Eastern District of California, 2020)

Feb 06 2020

Key Insight: Plaintiff was made aware that he had to preserve his phone records and text records and than failed to do so

Nature of Case: personal injury and liability

Electronic Data Involved: plaintiff’s cell phone and text messages

Keywords: spoliation, text messages, phone records, cell phone, preservation

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Cruz v. G-Star Inc., No. 17 Civ. 7685 (PGG) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2019)

Sep 30 2019

Key Insight: Plaintiff never articulated claims that would make reasonable person believe lawsuit was likely. No duty to preserve had yet attached when Plaintiff when to HR.

Nature of Case: Discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: emails and SAP account

Keywords: Imminent litigation; adverse inference

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Wolff v. United Airlines, Inc., No. 1:18-cv-00591-RM-SKC (D. Colo. Sep. 17, 2019).

Sep 17 2019

Key Insight: Both sides moved for spoliation sanctions. Court was troubled by failure to suspend automatic deletion and loss of personal cell phone, but imposed no sanctions.

Nature of Case: Employee Termination/Discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: cell phones, company computer, notebooks

Keywords: spoliation; sanctions; automatic deletion

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Man Zhang v. City of New York (SDNY, 2019)

Aug 20 2019

Key Insight: Spoliation, failure to issue Litigation Hold,

Nature of Case: 1983 Civil Rights

Electronic Data Involved: Hard copy, video, telephone recordings

Keywords: Adverse inference, Default Judgment, Sanctions, Attorney’s fees and costs, failure to investigate, Spoliation, Intent to deprive, Reasonable steps to preserve

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Beseke v. Equifax Information Services, LLC, No. 17-CV-4971-DWF-KMM (D. Minn, 2018)

Oct 18 2018

Key Insight: accessibility of data

Nature of Case: Violations of the FCRA

Electronic Data Involved: information related to similar lawsuits and consumer complaints

Keywords: data, searchable, accessible, access*, undue burden,

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Franklin v. Howard Brown Health Ctr., No. 17 C 8376 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 4, 2018)

Oct 01 2018

Key Insight: ineffective litigation hold, failure to preserve electronic evidence

Nature of Case: workplace harassment and discrimination

Electronic Data Involved: emails, text messages, instant messages

Keywords: instant messages, faulty and failed litigation hold, the defendant “bollixed its litigation hold”

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Small v. Univ. Med. Ctr., No. 2:13-cv-0298-APG-PAL (D. Nev. Aug. 9, 2018)

Key Insight: Defendant’s failure to preserve and produce ESI responsive to plantiffs’ discovery requests.

Nature of Case: unpaid wages and overtime claims collective action

Electronic Data Involved: deleted electronic records, undecipherable codes, mobile device data, text messages

Keywords: adverse inference instruction, unintelligible, mockery of the orderly administration of justice

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In re Application of HANSAIN VEST Hanseatische Investment-GmbH in respect of the Fund Aramea Rendite Plus; Trinity Investments Designated Activity Company (S.D. New York, 2018)

Jul 05 2018

Key Insight: Whether US based discovery can be used in a foreign proceeding

Nature of Case: 28 U.S.C. 1782 request for US based Discovery to be used in a foreign proceeding

Electronic Data Involved: Business documents

Keywords: US based discovery, foreign proceeding, serve document subpoenas

View Case Opinion

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