Key Insight: In case where parties disputed whether arbitration agreement applied to plaintiff and motion on the issue was pending, court allowed limited discovery and ordered defendant to choose up to 10 individuals whose files (electronic or otherwise) would be searched for information falling within certain categories
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Email
Key Insight: Permanent injunction that restrained defendant from “[r]emoving or destroying any files, or copies of files, including but not limited to Defendants’ computer or computer files” was overbroad because it enjoined activities defendant had a legal right to perform, such as deleting records and files that had nothing to do with the subject litigation
Nature of Case: Company sued former employee and his competing business for misappropriation of trade secrets
Electronic Data Involved: Computer files
Key Insight: Court denied individual defendant’s motion for reconsideration of default judgment entered against her and other defendants for continued destruction of evidence and continued possession of plaintiff’s proprietary files; although there was no evidence that individual defendant personally engaged in wrongful acts, she was not insulated by simply leaving compliance with court orders to other defendant; further, individual had numerous opportunities to disavow knowledge of misconduct or detail what efforts she personally took to comply with court orders but never did so
Nature of Case: Misapproriation of trade secrets and related torts
Electronic Data Involved: Proprietary information in electronic form
Key Insight: Order granting ex parte TRO before complaint was filed, and which prohibited defendants from destroying or altering electronic documents pertaining to complaint, was abuse of discretion
Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets
Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents
Key Insight: Claiming that it had already spent approximately $1.4 million to restore, review and produce email, and may have to expend as much as $3 million more in order to complete the document review and production, nonparty unsuccessfully attempted to avoid compliance with discovery orders in state proceeding by seeking injunctive and declaratory relief in federal court
Nature of Case: Action for declaratory and injunctive relief
Electronic Data Involved: Email stored on backup tapes
Key Insight: Terminated employee obtained preliminary injunction preventing his former employer from accessing “private” files stored on his work computer or discussing “private” files that were accessed; employer further ordered to provide employee access to his private files to determine which ones he wanted copied; employee prohibited from deleting any information from work computer
Nature of Case: Former assistant attorney general sought damages and injunctive relief
Electronic Data Involved: Employee’s “private” information contained on work computer
Key Insight: Defendant’s motion to dissolve TRO requiring preservation of documents and electronic data denied, however, “to mitigate the high costs associated with electronic document storage, the court will permit defendants to delete electronic records in the ordinary and usual course of business; provided, however, that hard copy records be made and kept of any and all [relevant] electronic records . . .”
Nature of Case: Race discrimination
Electronic Data Involved: Unspecified human resources records, payroll records
Key Insight: Failure to preserve certain computer hard drives did not warrant sanctions where there was no reasonable possibility that the missing hard drives (which were obtained after protective order was issued) contained evidence of the theft of trade secret information
Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets and related torts
Electronic Data Involved: Computer hard drives
Key Insight: Reference to previously entered TRO, ordering, among other things, that the parties neither destroy, alter, modify nor conceal any relevant data, including data stored on computer media, that defendants create and thereafter produce to defense counsel a backup file of defendant Bailey’s laptop computer, and a backup file of any personal computer hard-drive to which defendant Bailey has had access at any time, and that defendants produce a redacted copy of these hard-drive backup files to plaintiff’s counsel within three days after entry of the TRO; subsequent preliminary injunction included similar provisions
Nature of Case: Employer sued former employee for breach of employment contract, tortious interference, misappropriation of trade secrets
Electronic Data Involved: Databases containing sales and customer information
Key Insight: In light of defendant’s previous attempt to delete incriminating email and documents from his company laptop, court entered order requiring all parties to preserve and protect evidence
Nature of Case: Misappropriation of corporate opportunity and related claims
Electronic Data Involved: Electronic documents and mail
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