Email – Page 3 – Bow Tie Law

Arguing Back-Up Tapes Are Not Reasonably Accessible

November 2, 2010 Josh Gilliland Back-up Tape, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI

The Defendants in Johnson v. Neiman sought an order to not produce email messages located on back-up tapes on the basis the electronically stored information was not reasonably accessible. The Court agreed and issued a protective order. Johnson v. Neiman, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110496 (E.D. Mo. Oct. 18, 2010).[…]

Sanctions for Spoliation Are Not Made on Hunches

October 25, 2010 Josh Gilliland Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Imaging Hard Drives, Search Terms

In an employment discrimination case, the Defendant claimed the Plaintiff intentionally destroyed data off her personal computer and audio tapes. The Defendant sought the dismissal of the Plaintiff’s lawsuit and claimed they had spent $150,000 because of the alleged discovery violations. Coburn v. PN II, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110613[…]

Phased Discovery: Undue Burden and Practical Proportionality

October 7, 2010 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email

In a racial profiling case, the parties were in gridlock over custodians and date ranges to search of the electronically stored information. Barrera v. Boughton, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103491 (D. Conn. 2010). After a meet and confer, the Plaintiffs proposed searching 40 custodians, with 80 key words from January 2004[…]

How Third Party ESI Requests Collide with the Stored Communications Act

September 20, 2010 Josh Gilliland Civil Procedure, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Privacy

The Plaintiff in an online fraud case sought the production of personal email messages from Yahoo. Jimena v. UBS AG Bank, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95050 (E.D. Cal. Aug. 27, 2010). The allegations of the lawsuit involved a “Nigerian advance fee scheme,” where the Plaintiff claimed the Defendant, the Chief[…]

When “Undue Burden” Includes Back-Up Tapes from the Reagan Era

August 30, 2010 Josh Gilliland Back-up Tape, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Reasonably Accessible

1987 was an important year: Baby Jessica was saved from a well; Robert Bork was denied a seat on the Supreme Court; and Teenagers across the world played air guitar to Whitesnake’s immortal “Here I Go Again.” It is also the year the Plaintiffs wanted to restore back-up tapes[…]

A Judicial Love Bite: Initial Disclosures Mean Initial Disclosures

June 23, 2010 Josh Gilliland Civil Procedure, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Initial Disclosures, Supplemental Disclosures

Every now and then, rules with teeth will leave a love bite. This is one of those cases. The Plaintiffs identified 31 documents in their initial disclosures. However, none of these were produced because of a claimed computer crash. Pinkney v. Am. Med. Response, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56465,[…]

Raiders of the Lost Hard Drive

April 23, 2010 Josh Gilliland Duty to Preserve, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Litigation Hold

Legend says in 2005, litigation began over cell phone towers and “monopoles.” Discovery was extensive. Summary judgment motions were lost and won. Time had past. And then, what was lost was then found. When You Find the Ark of the e-Discovery Covenant A custodian’s computer was found in September 2008[…]

Undue Burden Arguments Must Be Specific, Not Speculative

March 25, 2010 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Request for Production

Seger v. Ernest-Spencer Metals is the story of an industrial accident where the Plaintiff suffered serious bodily injury. In the ensuing discovery battle, the Producing Party claimed the electronically stored information was from sources that were not reasonably accessible due to undue burden. Seger v. Ernest-Spencer Metals, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS[…]

e-Discovery Civil Procedure: Three Email Messages Do Not Establish Personal Jurisdiction

February 2, 2010 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, General Jurisdiction, Personal Jurisdiction, Specific Jurisdiction

Pelowski v. Pipe, 2010 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 549, 14-15 (Cal. App. 1st Dist. Jan. 26, 2010) is case where the Plaintiff’s appealed the judgment of dismissal of a Defendant based on the lack of personal jurisdiction. The Plaintiffs argued that both general and personal jurisdiction in California were properly established, because[…]

The Form of Production Battle of the Bulge: Scanned PDF’s Not a Reasonably Useable Form

January 25, 2010 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Foreign Discovery, Form of Production, Native File, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production

“In the court’s experience, scanned PDFs, as opposed to electronically-produced PDFs, are not reasonably usable.” Magistrate Judge Paul M. Warner In Accessdata Corp. v. Alste Techs. Gmbh, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4566 (D. Utah Jan. 21, 2010), a United States based company that produces forensic software used in e-Discovery, entered into a contract with[…]