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Defendant Fails to Meet its Burden for Spoliation Allegations Against Plaintiff
All this week, our blog has been discussing the consequences of defendant’s failure to preserve evidence after a duty to preserve electronic data has been imposed. However, it is not always the defendant accused of spoliation. In the case Research Foundation of State University of New York v. Nektar Therapeutics,
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Sanctions Warranted After Defendant eDiscovery Spoliation Uncovered
One cannot help but wonder what, exactly, was the defendant’s strategy in the case Kirgan v. FCA LLC, Case No. 10-1392 (C.D.Ill. April 10, 2013). In this employment discrimination case, the plaintiff sought the defendant CEO and COO’s electronic calendars to evidence certain meetings on specific dates that supported his
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When Must Video Surveillance Be Preserved to Avoid eDiscovery Spoliation?
In an unpublished decision, the Eleventh Circuit decided an appeal by a plaintiff in McLeod v. Wal-Mart, No. 12-13919, slip op. (11th Cir. April 3, 2013). Plaintiff had been charged with theft, but the criminal case was dismissed and plaintiff sued Wal-Mart in a civil case. The court considered the
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Electronic Discovery Question: Does Predictive Coding Case Law Require Production of Seed Sets?
In an order dated May 21, 2013 in the case Hinterberger v. Catholic Health Systems, 08-CV-380S(F), the court heard arguments from the parties about whether predictive coding case law requires the early production of a “seed set” of documents. In this case, the parties started out sorting and culling electronic
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$4.5 Million Awarded to Plaintiff after Electronic Discovery Spoliation
After a “long, and oftentimes tortuous journey” by a plaintiff in the case E.I. DuPond De Nemours and Company v. Kolon Industries, Inc., Civil Action NO 3:09cv058 (E.D.Va 2013), the court awarded plaintiff a reasonable amount of attorney fees and costs that totaled $4,497,047.50. The court awarded the fees and
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Emails Produced Lead to Additional Defendant and Claim
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
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Native Files for the 3D Experience in Civil Litigation
Plaintiff eDiscovery Experts Explain 21st Century Document Review When a party seeks electronic discovery in civil litigation, obtaining data in its native format is the equivalent of a 3D experience. Rather than looking at a limited 2 dimensional view of a document, native format offers the ability to learn about
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Well-Pled Allegations are a Requirement to Expand the Scope of Plaintiff eDiscovery
How well-pled are your allegations? Do they justify the scope of electronic discovery you are seeking? In a district court order dated March 5, 2013 in the case US ex rel. King, et al. v. Solvay, Civil Action No. H-06-2662 (S.D.Tx 2013), the crux of a qui tam complaint was
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Will Email Threads Uncover Fraud in an $18 Billion International Case?
As email threads are now critical evidence in most civil litigation, it should be no surprise that email might be the key to determining whether massive fraud is at play in a very interesting case out of the Southern District of New York. Chevron Corp. v. Steven Donzinger, et al.,
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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