Category: Email

  • Can You Amend a Pleading to Allege eDiscovery Abuses?

    29 Sep 2014

    In Amusement Industry, Inc. v. Moses Stern No. 07 Civ. 11586 (LAK)(GWG)(S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2014), Plaintiff motioned after the close of discovery to amend its pleading to add a state law claim of “deceit.” The motion alleged Defendant wrongfully omitted key emails from the defense production and improperly and misleadingly

  • Is One Missing Email Enough to Extend Discovery After Three Years?

    26 Sep 2014

    In Sun Products Corporation v. Lock & Load Industries LLC, Case No. 2:11-cv-316-CW-PMW, D. Utah Central Div. Sept. 11, 2014, Sun Products (Plaintiff) sued the Defendant, alleging that Defendant sold Plaintiff an antibacterial drug which failed to meet certain specifications. In December 2011, a Plaintiff custodian was deposed and asked

  • Must a Party Provide Metadata When the Info is on the Face of the Document?

    24 Sep 2014

    In Melian Labs Inc. v. Triology LLC, Case No. 13-cv-04791-SBA (KAW), N.D.Cal September 4, 2014, the parties entered into a discovery agreement pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.Pro. 26(f). The agreement stated metadata need only be provided as part of the ESI to show the following fields: Dates sent and received Times sent and

  • Court Sides with Plaintiff in Search Term Dispute of Electronic Data

    19 Sep 2014

    Most Agreed Orders regarding electronically stored information (ESI) state that the parties shall agree upon search terms to produce relevant data. However, obtaining an agreement on search terms is sometimes easier said than done in contentious litigation. In The Shaw Group Inc. v. Zurich American Insurance Company, et al., Civil

  • Are Emails Subject to a Protective Order Trumped by the Public Records Act?

    15 Aug 2014

    In an earlier blog we discussed how the public has a presumptive right of access to judicial proceedings. Turning on a similar note, we now look to the question of whether the Public Records Act (PRA) can allow disclosure of emails that are subject to a protective order or whether

  • Can a Motion in Limine Be Effective to Challenge ESI Redactions?

    11 Aug 2014

    In Goldenson, et al., v. Steffens, et al., No. 2:10-cv-00440-JAW (D. Me. July 7, 2014), a motion in limine was used to challenge redactions to email chains after discovery was closed. As background, Plaintiffs Daniel and Suzanne Goldenson alleged John L. Steffens, Gregory Ho, and various other defendants engaged in

  • Do Overly Broad eDiscovery Requests Allow for Cost-Shifting?

    21 Jul 2014

    In Georgia-Pacific LLC v. OfficeMax Inc., et al., (N.D. Cal. June 30, 2014), the court was tasked with deciding whether Plaintiffs’ objections to Defendants’ broad electronically stored information (ESI) requests necessitated cost-shifting. Defendants requested that Plaintiffs produce its executive emails from five custodians, including: 1. The executives’ servers, shared files,

  • Are Back-up Servers and Back-up Tapes the Same Thing in eDiscovery?

    23 Apr 2014

    In the last post, we discussed the Defendant’s meager ESI production in Knickerbocker v. Corinthian Colleges, Case NO. C12-1142JLR (W.D. Wash. April 7, 2014). Pending is Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions for failing to produce Plaintiffs’ email communications within their control, among other deficiencies. (Read the prior post for a fuller

  • Negligent Spoliation Without a Showing of Prejudice: Sanctions or No?

    24 Jul 2013

    For a recent case that offers a twist on necessary elements for spoliation sanctions, see the memorandum decision dated June 10, 2013 in Sekisui America Corp. v. Hart, 2013 WL 2951924 (S.D.N.Y.). One of the disputes at issue is whether sanctions were warranted against the plaintiff company for deleting a

  • Emails Produced Lead to Additional Defendant and Claim

    24 May 2013

    Our ongoing analysis of electronic discovery in modern civil litigation has established a major truism: email threads in electronic data discovery are often the source of critical evidence and can sometimes uncover hidden truths. This was demonstrated in the recent opinion and order dated March 28, 2013 in Campbell v. Sedgwick, Civil