Bow Tie Law

Enforcing Injunctions Against 3rd Parties in Online Defamation

January 14, 2010 Josh Gilliland Defamation

The Plaintiffs in Blockowicz v. Ramey were victims of online defamation on social networking and other websites. The Plaintiffs were successful in getting a default judgment against the Defendants and an injunction to remove the defamatory material. Blockowicz v. Ramey, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118599 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 21, 2009).[…]

The Low Speed Chase that Gives Us Admissible Cell Phone Photo after a Warrantless Search

January 12, 2010 Josh Gilliland Criminal Procedure, Discovery, Duty to Preserve, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Reasonable Expectation of Privacy, Spoliation, Text Messages

A police officer stopped a car driving with a flat tire, cracked windshield and its bright lights on. People v. Gorostiza, 2009 Cal. App. Unpub. Lexis 9494 at *1. The passengers might have been hoping, “There is nothing to see here.” After stopping the car with the Defendant and two passengers,[…]

No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Abandoned CD’s

January 10, 2010 Josh Gilliland Criminal Procedure, Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

A criminal defendant was convicted of possession of child pornography, based on CD’s and other media he left after vacating an apartment. The Supreme Court of New Hampshire found he had no expectation of privacy in the abandoned media and that the search of the media was proper. State v.[…]

In the War of the Roses, It is Best to Change Your Email Password

January 5, 2010 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Eavesdropping, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Exclusion of Evidence

Divorce is ugly. It can be uglier when your estranged spouse has the password to your email account. In Gurevich v. Gurevich, 2009 NY Slip Op 29191 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2009), the estranged wife had her ex-husband’s email password since their separation in 2006. The wife accessed the husband’s email[…]

Bow Tie Law 1st Anniversary

December 30, 2009 Josh Gilliland Blogging, Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Exclusion of Evidence, Litigation Hold

December 30, 2009 marks the first anniversary of “Bow Tie Law.” 2009 was a watershed year of case law, with litigation hold opinions coming up weekly this summer; the mandatory exclusion of ESI for the failure to disclose or supplement discovery; and judges holding attorneys to a higher standard for electronically stored[…]

Bad Romance e-Discovery Style: Text Messages in an Ugly Break Up

December 29, 2009 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Text Messages

Discussion of In re C. C., 2009 Cal. App. LEXIS 1715 (Cal. App. 3d Dist. Oct. 27, 2009) at the Paraben Forensic Innovation Conference. The case involved a bad high school break-up, where the teenage boy sent vulgar text messages venting anger to ex-girlfriend. The Juvenile Court took words from[…]

Discovery Games in Gaming Litigation

December 24, 2009 Josh Gilliland Discovery, Document Review, Duty to Preserve, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Litigation Hold, Reasonably Accessible, Request for Production

Discovery games were taking place in a gaming case in Mississippi. The Plaintiffs brought a motion to strike and a motion for sanctions for discovery misconduct in responding to requests for electronically stored information. Maggette v. BL Dev. Corp., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116789 (N.D. Miss. Nov. 24, 2009). The[…]

Federal Rule of Evidence 502(b): Not to be Gutted Like a Fish

December 22, 2009 Josh Gilliland Electronically Stored Information, ESI, FRE 502, Waiver of Privilege

Magistrate Judge Facciola addressed Federal Rule of Evidence Rule 502(b) with the inadvertent disclosure of a memorandum protected by the work product doctrine, in a case involving an officer with the DC Department of Corrections. Amobi v. D.C. Dep’t of Corr., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114270, 20-21 (D.D.C. Dec. 8, 2009). […]