Litigation Holds

ilsteam
January 2, 2019

Court Chides Defendant for Allowing Deletion of Key Instant Messages

In Franklin v. Howard Brown Health Ctr., Case No. 17 C 8376 (N.D. Ill. October 4, 2018), a workplace harassment and discrimination case, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois recommended that Plaintiff’s motion for discovery sanctions be granted to the extent that the “parties be allowed to present evidence and

ilsteam
July 5, 2017

Spoliation Sanction Motion for Erasure of Truck Accident ECM Data Denied Due to Lack of Custody, Insufficient Evidence

Wiedeman v. Canal Insurance Company et. al., Case No. 15-4182 (N.D. Ga., June 9, 2017) arises out of a truck accident between Plaintiff and Defendant Walter Dorn, a truck driver and employee of Defendant H & F Transfer. The truck was leased from non-party Salem Leasing. On the day of the collision, the investigating police

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June 23, 2017

No Spoliation Found where Google Chrome Web History Automatically Deleted Prior to Litigation Hold

Eshelman v. Puma Biotechnology, Inc., Case No. 16-00018 (E.D. N.C., June 7, 2017) is a libel suit related to an allegedly defamatory investor presentation. Plaintiff was an investor in Defendant, a biopharmaceutical company. Plaintiff owns a pharmaceutical research organization called PPD, which contracted with Aventis Pharmaceuticals to provide clinical research services during a clinical trial

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May 24, 2017

The Choice is Yours: ESI Production Under FRCP 34

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34(b)(2)(E) is all about choice: a party can choose to produce electronically stored information (ESI) in the usual course of business, or it can be organized and labeled to respond to the corresponding discovery requests. A seemingly-simple rule, FRCP 34 is often cited as the source of discovery disputes. A

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May 10, 2017

What are the Most Common Objections to Search Terms?

Plan Ahead for Challenges Due to Relevance and Overbreadth The initial list of search terms to be used to cull and produce hot documents from electronically stored information (ESI) is a critical stage of the eDiscovery process. Every case will be unique, and there is no “one size fits all” approach for search terms. However,

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April 17, 2017

Defendant Ordered to Pay for Plaintiff’s Forensic Examination of Hard Drive

In TLS Management and Marketing Services, LLC v. Rodriguez-Toledo, et. al., Case No. 15-2121 (D. P.R., Mar. 27, 2017), Plaintiff sued Defendants for violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and various Puerto Rico statutes. Defendant Rodriguez-Toledo is a former employee of Plaintiff who allegedly, with the other defendants, stole clients from Plaintiff and also

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February 24, 2017

Text Messages in Electronic Discovery: Produce or Face Spoliation for Deletion

Text messages in electronic discovery are more important than ever in almost all civil litigations. Even more so than email, texts tend to be casual and candid in content, and may not be as carefully considered prior to transmission. This quality makes text messages a particularly prime source of potential relevant evidence in many cases

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February 17, 2017

Spoliation Motion Denied in Misappropriation of Trade Secrets Case

In HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. v. Flowers, et. al., Case No. 15-3262 (N.D. Ga., Jan. 30, 2017), Plaintiff sued Defendants alleging that Defendant Flowers and Defendant Remeika resigned from a non-party subsidiary of Plaintiff, HCC, and appropriated Plaintiff’s trade secrets for use in their new company, Defendant CRU. Plaintiff filed the suit on September 16,

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February 15, 2017

Adverse Inference Instruction, Motion Fees and Costs Ordered Against Police Department For ESI Spoliation

Martinez v. Salazar et. al., Case No. 14-534 (D. N.M., Jan. 26, 2017) is an excessive force case filed by Plaintiff, the personal representative of Russell Martinez, against two police officers as well as the Espanola Police Department and the City of Espanosa. The Complaint alleged that one of the Defendant officers, Officer Salazar, responded

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February 10, 2017

Foreign Companies Investigated by Foreign Government under No Duty to Preserve ESI for Potential U.S. Lawsuits, Court Says

In Rockman Company (USA), Inc. et. al. v. Nong Shim Company, LTD, et. al., Case No. 13-04115 (N.D. Cali., Jan. 19, 2017), Plaintiffs, direct and indirect purchasers of Korean noodles, filed suit against four companies and their U.S. distributors, accusing them of conspiracy to fix the price of Korean noodles in the United States. During the