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The Adjudication of Adverse Inference Instructions as Spoliation Sanctions: An Update
Last year, we published a newsletter that provided practitioners a survey of case opinions re how courts adjudicated applications for adverse inference instructions sanctions based upon accusations of ESI/discovery spoliation. Since that newsletter was posted, additional opinions relative to this topic have issued, and so ILS is providing you this
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Wrongful Death Plaintiff Awarded Attorneys’ Fees for Defendant Failure to Preserve ESI and Other Evidence
In wrongful death case McQueen et. al. v. Aramark Corp. et. al., Case No. 15-492 (D. Utah, Nov. 29, 2016), Plaintiff’s decedent, Alec McQueen, was killed in an incident at the Bullfrog Marina. On August 15, 2014, before filing the lawsuit, Plaintiff sent a litigation hold letter to Defendant demanding
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Cost Shifting/Taxation of Costs for eDiscovery Expenses: A Case Update
Litigation is expensive, particularly when the parties do not plan comprehensive eDiscovery strategies, are unprepared to handle extensive electronic data, or become engaged in drawn-out discovery disputes. In federal cases, the prevailing party to a civil action can recover some costs associated with the litigation expenses from the losing party,
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Court Awards Plaintiff $24K in Computer Forensics Expert Witness Fees
In Integrated Direct Marketing, LLC v. Drew May, et. al., Case No. 14-1183 (E.D. Va., June 28, 2016), Plaintiff sued Defendant May, a former employee, for misappropriation of confidential and proprietary information that he allegedly shared with his new employer, Defendant Merkle. Defendant May worked for Plaintiff from January 2012
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Court Schools Defendant on Deduplication of Email
In Family Wireless #1, LLC et. al. v. Automotive Technologies, Inc., Case No. 15-01310 (D. Conn., May 19, 2016), Plaintiffs are franchisees of Defendant who sued Defendant for breach of contract, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment and unfair trade practices. The parties filed their FRCP 26(f) report that provided a protocol for
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Northern District of Illinois Compels Atlas Van Lines to Produce Shipping Data in Usable Electronic Format
In Mervyn v. Atlas Van Lines, Inc. et. al., Case No. 13-3587 (N.D. Ill., Oct. 23, 2015), Plaintiff requested certain owner-operator lease agreements, called PVOs, from Defendants. Plaintiff also requested specific data related to a certain time period in “usable electronic format.” Plaintiff filed a Motion to Compel, and the
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Avoid Pitfalls When Seeking to Compel Production of a Medical Audit Trail
Plaintiffs Must Demonstrate Clear Purpose and Good Cause In a recent newsletter, ILS discussed recent court opinions where the court ordered a party to produce the audit trail for an electronic medical record. With the increasing adoption of electronic medical records by hospitals and physicians, these important pieces of metadata
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Audit Trails and the Production of Electronic Medical Records
Doctors and hospitals frequently keep both paper and electronic records for their patients. In a personal injury or mass tort case, the victim’s medical data is usually the key component of the evidentiary record. But what can an injured plaintiff do if he or she suspects that defendants may have
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Court Shifts Subpoenaed Third Party’s eDiscovery Costs Under FRCP 45
In Re Subpoena of American Nurses Association (Hinterberger, et al. v. Catholic Health Sys., Inc., No. 08-CV-0380 (W.D.N.Y.)), Case No. RWT 11-cv-2836 (D. Md. Mar. 31, 2015), the District Court of Maryland considered Plaintiffs’ appeal of an award of costs for a third-party electronic data production. Plaintiffs subpoenaed the American Nurses
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Defendant Must Produce ESI In TIFF or Native Format, Even If It Requires Hiring an ESI Vendor To Do So
FRCP 34(b)(1)(C) allows the party requesting discovery to specify the format in which it wants the producing party to produce electronically stored information (ESI). If the party does not specify a particular format, FRCP 34(b)(2)(E) states that the producing party can produce the ESI in either i) the manner in which it