Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
Litigants frequently battle over the production of search term hits, regardless of whether the “hits” are even relevant. This is absolutely the wrong beach to die on in a lawsuit. There is the brutal reality of the costs of motion practice for the client and judicial resources spent refereeing that[…]
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The Plaintiffs in the class action case involving claims false advertising and unfair competition over automatic renewal of magazine subscriptions found a new spin of this often litigated dispute over search terms: a motion to compel the Defendants to produce all responsive ESI, regardless of whether it was a hit[…]
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Lawyers have to answer a very basic question in preparing a case for trial: How can we prove damages? In a patent case with a discovery dispute over lost-profit damages, the ultimate question was what damages were “adequate to compensate for the infringement” and how to prove them. Polaris Indus. v.[…]
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A professional photographer took a photo of Willie Nelson at a concert in 2009. The photographer posted the photo on Wikipedia and allowed others to post the image provided they complied with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License. Funny how time slips away, but in April[…]
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Video games have been a way of life since the first computers, from the basic games of the 1950s to Pac-Man Fever of the 1980s. The 21st Century has a new level of game play, with far more complicated games that were ever envisioned in the days of Pong. One[…]
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Electronically Stored Information has progressed beyond email messages in lawsuits. In a multi-vehicle accident involving a UPS truck, the Plaintiff sought ESI including daily reports of the driver. These reports were listed in an interrogatory response and the Plaintiff claimed the Defendant had a duty to preserve them. Merriweather v.[…]
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Identifying ESI that supports a party’s claims and is responsive to discovery requests comprises the detailed work of document review. Both workflows are extremely similar in that constructing searches are one way to find the relevant ESI. In a discrimination suit, the Defendants filed motions to compel the Plaintiff to[…]
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Electronically Stored Information (ESI) is far more than communications sent between parties; a party’s investigators can also create ESI. In a lawsuit brought by PETA against at a zoo for the treatment of animals under the Endangered Species Act, the Defendants sought photos and videos surreptitiously recorded, and related investigatory[…]
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An exploding candle lit the fuse on a protracted product liability case. The Plaintiffs sought un-redacted copies of reports created by a forensic engineering firm that collected complaints from customers. The firm was hired by Defendant’s attorneys for analysis of the flash-over incidents. Lakes v. Bath & Body Works, LLC,[…]
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Parties in litigation often want to charge every windmill. The desire to fight every battle, or propound requests, conduct review, or issue deposition notices, can result in high costs with little results. Proportionality is one tool judges have to keep parties from destructive discovery conduct. In a contentious eDiscovery case,[…]
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