Recent Articles

Failure to confer on production issues leads to shared sanctions

December 29, 2008 21:50

Covad Communcations Co. v. Revonet, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104204 (D.D.C. Dec. 24, 2008) Producer had responded to requestor’s first production request by producing hard copies, but indicating that electronic documents were still being collected. Subsequently, producer notified requestor that ...

Request for production of metadata denied where requestor unable to meet “heightened” burden caused by late request for metadata

December 19, 2008 16:37

Aguilar v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Div., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97018 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 21, 2008) As the result of a pendency of a motion to dismiss, defendant producers requested a stay of discovery except as to certain claims. The parties agreed to conduct discovery on those claims, and...

Default judgment granted where forensic analysis of laptop reveals extensive attempts to destroy evidence

December 15, 2008 17:15

Gutman v. Klein, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92398 (Oct. 15, 2008) The magistrate judge had previously ordered defendant producer Klein to produce computers for forensic examination. When the expert arrived to pick up the computers, one was offered immediately, but Klein refused to produce a laptop for...

Judge establishes search protocol where parties cannot agree

December 09, 2008 14:14

D’Onofrio v. SFX Sports Group, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87905 (D.D.C. Oct. 29, 2008) The parties had previously agreed that plaintiff requestor’s forensic expert, Mr. Bond, could search producer’s servers, but the parties were unable to come up with an appropriate protocol. Despite the court’s r...

Court suggests expert analysis of search terms and sampling as means of assisting requestor in obtaining additional discovery

December 02, 2008 17:11

Ross v. Abercrombie & Fitch Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87039 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 27, 2008) The parties had originally agreed on 120 key words and on databases to be searched. After these terms retrieved a large number of documents, a new set of 123 terms was created. The parties agreed that some...

Producer ordered to provide more detail on organization of electronic documents produced

November 24, 2008 21:14

Pass & Seymour, Inc. v. Hubbell, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85380 (N.D.N.Y. Sep. 12, 2008) Producer plaintiff produced 405,367 pages of documents in digital format, sorted among 202 unlabelled folders, which were capable of being made text searchable. No index was provided. Requestor...

Producer sanctioned for failure to provide a 30(b)(6) witness where it failed to educate itself on its electronic systems

November 11, 2008 15:10

Ideal Aerosmith, Inc. v. Acutronic USA, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85619 (W.D. Pa. Oct. 23, 2008) Plaintiff requestor sought information regarding defendant producer’s “e-mail systems, other computer systems, and backup policies and procedures.” Id. at *5. Although producer had produced only one ...

Existence of policy recommending that sensitive material be destroyed not enough to warrant sanctions when no evidence of actual destruction produced

November 06, 2008 20:52

Oldenkamp v. United American Ins. Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84784 (N.D. Okla. Oct. 21, 2008) Plaintiff requestor filed a motion to compel and for sanctions, alleging that recordings of telephone conversations, and e-mails, had not been produced and had been destroyed. The court denied requestor’s m...

Court awards 75% of attorneys fees to producer where requestor’s accusations in its motion to compel prove baseless

October 30, 2008 00:45

CBT Flint Partners, LLC v. Return Path, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84189 (N.D. Ga. Aug. 7, 2008) Requestor had filed an emergency motion requesting that the court compel producer to complete its document production and privilege review in two weeks. The court stated that requestor’s request “...

Spoliation claim denied despite producer’s gross negligence where requestor unable to show a “reasonable possibility” that the missing documents would have demonstrated injury to requestor

October 17, 2008 22:20

Pandora Jewelry, LLC v. Chamilia, LLC, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79232 (D. Md. Sep. 30, 2008) Plaintiff requestor’s suit against defendant producer claimed false advertising, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage and unfair competition, in connection with certain communications by p...