E-DiSCOVERY

On July 25, 2016, the Washington District Court –using  its inherent power to sanction – fined Defendant’s attorney for failing to rely on new rules. According to the Court, Defendants “proceeded to misstate the law” in their reply brief on the motion to compel by citing case law “that analyzed the version of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1) that existed before the highly publicized amendments took effect on December 1, 2015”. According to the Court, the attorney was in Read more [...]

On July 21, 2016, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, determined that in a low-dollar-value civil rights suit, the public value of allowing the opportunity to access relevant information far outweighs the asserted cost to retrieve such data. In this employment discrimination case, the Parties disagreed over “whether [electronically stored information] ESI should be produced in native format or PDF format”. Plaintiff requested production Read more [...]

On June 24, 2016, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, determined that “a party cannot simply claim ignorance in order to avoid producing documents that are relevant to an opposing party’s claim or defense”. Plaintiff FDIC is the receiver of AmTrust while Defendant Ark-La-Tex is engaged in the business of brokering, originating, processing and other activities related to loans. Plaintiff alleges that defendant breached their agreement by submitting Read more [...]

On June 14, 2016, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, held that personal email accounts may be searched with reference to a work-related dispute. In this civil rights case, Plaintiff motioned to compel Defendants to “search for and produce certain documents from their personal computers and email accounts.” Plaintiff pointed out in his motion that the Individual Defendant had been sued in their individual capacities, not only in their official capacities. Read more [...]

On May 23, 2016, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York determined that “just as a plaintiff may not take discovery regarding unpled claims, so a defendant is precluded from seeking discovery concerning unpled defenses”. In this intellectual property dispute, Defendants moved – among other requests - for an order compelling Plaintiffs to produce all requested discovery material. Plaintiffs responded to the discovery at issue, but the defendants considered Read more [...]