Cody v. City of St. Louis (E.D. Mo. 2021)
Key Insight: After changing counsel, plaintiff sought an order compelling the defendant to reproduce prior ESI productions and to produce all future ESI productions in either native format or accompanied by metadata identifying the custodians, recipient, and date of the document. In denying plaintiff’s motion to compel, the court noted the parties “could and should have reached agreement on the format of ESI production in the nearly three years the case was pending” and plaintiff never requested a specific format previously, and also produced ESI to defendant in non-native format without metadata. Nothing in Rule 34(b) nor the Advisory Committee Notes indicates whether metadata must be produced to be considered reasonably usable. Thus, “absent a specific request to the contrary or special circumstances not at issue here, courts regularly find that searchable PDF documents constitute a reasonably usable form.”
Nature of Case: Civil Rights
Electronic Data Involved: PDF Documents