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What Case Law is Helpful for Native File Disputes?
Plaintiff Electronic Discovery Information for Civil Litigation We recently blogged about the case Sexton v. Lecavalier [1], where the parties argued whether failure to provide native file format with respect to emails stored by a third party provider was sanctionable. Read our blog post for a further discussion of the
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Examining the “General Effectiveness of Sanctions” with Rule 26 in Mind
In our last post, this blog reviewed emails redacted under purported attorney-client privilege in Ewald v. Royal Norwegian Embassy, Case No. 11-cv-2116 (SRN/SER)(D.Minn. March 7, 2014). The magistrate ruled it was not privileged, but Defendant moved for sanctions as a plaintiff trial attorney read the disputed email aloud into the
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What is the Newest Proposed Federal Rule 37(e)?
In our last blog post, we began a discussion of recently-published Discovery Subcommittee Report on Rule 37(e) (Jump to page 369 of the linked PDF.) We won’t rehash the controversy of Rule 37(e) on this post. As our last blog post pointed out, the Subcommittee completely rewrote the proposed Rule
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Federal Rules Advisory Committee Scraps Proposed Rule 37(e)
After over 2,000 public comments, the Federal Rules Advisory Committee has decided to rewrite the proposed changes to Rule 37(e). As we noted in our newsletter on the controversy of Rule 37(e), the proposed Rule would impose higher burdens upon parties seeking sanctions for spoliation of electronic evidence. In most
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Do General Objections Suffice to Dispute Plaintiff ESI Requests?
“The Ninth Circuit has held that boilerplate objections or blanket refusals inserted into a response to a Rule 34 request for production of documents are insufficient to assert a privilege,” quote the Court in Progressive Casualty Insurance Company v. FDIC, et al., Case No. 2:12-cv-00665-KJD-PAL (D.Nev. March 13, 2014); citing
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Mobile Phones in Plaintiff eDiscovery
The Benefits and Challenges of Litigation Involving Smartphone Data As electronic data has become one of the main sources of information in civil litigation, business computers, hard drives and corporate servers are often the primary source of relevant evidence. While these sources remain extremely important, there has also been a
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Omnia Presumuntur Contra Spoliatorem: Why is this Important for Plaintiffs?
Spoliators should not benefit from their wrongdoing and all things are presumed against a wrong doer, or “omnia presumuntur contra spoliatorem,” as the Court stated in Quantlab Technologies Ltd. v. Godlevsky, et al., Civil Action No. 4:09-cv-4039(S.D.Tex. February 19, 2014). The Court considered Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions after “a staggering
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Sanctions Against Plaintiff Denied Regarding Alleged Spoliation of Evidence
In our last post, this blog discussed the allegations made by Defendant in a Motion for Sanctions for Spoliation of Evidence in the case Oros & Busch Application Technologies, Inc. v. Terra Renewal Services, Inc. Case No. 4:12CV00959 ERW (E.D.Mo. March 6, 2014). Defendant made three undisputed factual points regarding
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Plaintiff Spoliation at Issue After Mediated Settlement Dictated ESI Destruction
In the business tort case Oros & Busch Application Technologies, Inc. v. Terra Renewal Services, Inc. Case No. 4:12CV00959 ERW (E.D.Mo. March 6, 2014), plaintiff ESI and spoliation is at issue. Plaintiff and Defendant are competing environmental clean-up businesses. To very briefly summarize the facts: Defendant’s former employees, Golden and
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District Court Reconsiders its eDiscovery Order Under FRCP 34(b)(2)(E)(i) and (E)(ii)
In our last post, we reviewed the discovery facts in the case The Anderson Living Trust v. WPX Energy Production, LLC et al., No. CIV 12-0040 JB/LFG(D.N.M. March 6, 2014). A dispute arose regarding whether a party must, under FRCP 34(b)(2)(E)(i), organize the electronically stored information (ESI) to correspond to