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District Court Orders Specific Default Protocol for ESI Production
In the absence of concrete rules, or when parties seem to be unable to reach a compromise on electronic discovery, courts may outline specific orders to address all eDiscovery concerns. This was the case in the April 3, 2013 Order Regarding Electronically Stored Information in W Holding Company, Inc. v.
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Open Season on Facebook for Plaintiff ESI Production? Not So Fast.
There is a new trend emerging in civil litigation relating to plaintiff ESI production requests: defendants are now regularly demanding access to social media accounts, particularly Facebook. While the case law continues to evolve, many courts hold that defendants must make a “threshold showing” that information gleaned from a plaintiff’s
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Court Recommends eDiscovery Consultant Help with Defense Production
In the employment discrimination case Brown v. FPI Management, No. 4:11-cv-5414 YGR (N.D. Cal 2013), the court issued an order regarding a discovery dispute. The defendants objected to plaintiff electronic discovery requests seeking email communications between the defendant employer and third-parties employees about promotions within the company. The requests were
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Google Subpoenaed to Produce Emails for Foreign Proceeding
In Optiver Australia v. Libra Trading, 2013 WL 256771 (N.D.Cal.), the plaintiff, Optiver, filed suit in Australia, alleging its former employee stole proprietary information and disclosed such to his new employer, the defendant. In response to plaintiff eDiscovery requests, defendant produced email threads, but plaintiff suspected key emails were missing and
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Court Rejects Excuses for Poor Electronic Discovery Defense Production
Our last blog discussed the first part of the 2013 court opinion in Peerless Industries, Inc. v. Crimson AV, LLC, (2013 WL 85378 (N.D.Ill.), which compelled the deposition of a foreign managing agent to be conducted in the U.S. The second part of the order reviewed plaintiff’s renewed Motion for
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Social Media Disclosure in Plaintiff ESI Production Requires Threshold Showing by Defendant
One new area of plaintiff electronic discovery that is often contentious is the request for access to personal social media accounts. Defendants are now commonly requesting total access to plaintiffs’ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other accounts as part of eDiscovery. Many plaintiffs understandably object to this, typically alleging the requests
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Administrative Judge Limits Complainant/Plaintiff ESI Production in UTC Action
As part of a patent complaint before U.S. International Trade Commission, entitled In the Matter of Certain Electronic Imaging Devices, Inv. NO. 337-TA-850 (Nov. 19, 2012), one issue was the scope of eDiscovery. This is an administrative proceeding and the parties are not bound by the federal rules of evidence.
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Judge Scheindlin Discusses ESI Production at 2012 eDiscovery Institute
U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin recently spoke at the 2012 Georgetown eDiscovery Institute, where the topic was “First Do No Harm: Preserving and Admitting Foreign ESI.” Judge Scheindlin’s penning of five Zubulake electronic discovery opinions in one of the first major plaintiff eDiscovery cases in the country makes
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DOJ’s Untimely Litigation Hold Results in Inadequate ESI Production and Sanctions
In the recent case of U.S. ex rel. Baker v. Community Health Systems, Inc., 2012 WL 5387069 (D.N.M. Oct 3, 2012), the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged the defendant engaged in Medicaid fraud. In a motion for sanctions, defendant alleged that the DOJ’s litigation holds were untimely and
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District Court Ups the Monetary Sanctions for Defense Production Spoliation in Multifeeder
In reviewing the recommendations of the magistrate judge in Multifeeder Technology, Inc. v. British Confectionery Company Limited (2012 WL 4135848 (D. Minn.)), the district court noted that sanctions for spoliation require a finding of an intentional destruction of evidence indicating a desire to suppress the truth. Id. at 4, citing