Reasonably Accessible – Bow Tie Law

Always Explain "Why" to the Judge

October 2, 2012 Josh Gilliland Duty to Preserve, e-Discovery, Reasonably Accessible, Request for Production

A Plaintiff brought a motion to compel “access to electronic records,” claiming the Defendants had “withheld electronically stored information” and had not produced a “chronological e-mail history of any kind.” Murray v. Coleman, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130219, 1-3 (W.D.N.Y. Sept. 12, 2012). The Defense attorney claimed that the Defendant[…]

eDiscovery Does Not Mean Esoteric Discovery

June 16, 2012 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, ethics, Reasonably Accessible, Undue Burden

News Am. Mktg. In-Store Servs., is a breach of contract case involving multiple eDiscovery disputes. According to the Plaintiff, the Defendant did the following: Destroyed relevant email evidence, including an email server; Failed to produce responsive documents in discovery due to the above failure; and Failed to run appropriate ESI searches[…]

Printing ESI & Scanning It Is Not OK

January 27, 2012 Josh Gilliland Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Reasonably Accessible, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production

In Indep. Mktg. Group v. Keen, the Defendant-Requesting Party requested the corporate Plaintiff conduct targeted searches with specific key words on specific custodians on the Plaintiff’s server. Indep. Mktg. Group v. Keen, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7702 (M.D. Fla. Jan. 24, 2012). The Plaintiff produced one multiple page PDF without[…]

Form of Production: (Almost) Anyway You Want It

August 17, 2011 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Reasonably Accessible, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production

A Plaintiff in an age discrimination case requested ESI be produced in native format. Linnebur v. United Tel. Ass’n, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88456 (D. Kan. Aug. 10, 2011). The Defendants did not assert any objections, but produced the responsive ESI as PDF’s. Linnebur, at 3. The ESI at issue[…]

Exotic Apples: Solutions in Collecting & Processing Apple ESI

August 15, 2011 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Initial Disclosures, Reasonably Accessible, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production, Supplemental Disclosures

My friend Charlie Kaupp at Digital Strata brought the following issue to me: There is an increasingly prevalent amount of Apple ESI found in corporate environments, especially among executives, engineering, and marketing groups. Most review platforms do not handle large portions of Apple ESI, including: Mac email (Entourage, Outlook 2011,[…]

A Standard for Undue Burden: Excruciating, But Highly Educational and Useful, Detail

March 9, 2011 Josh Gilliland De-Dupe, Discovery, Duty to Preserve, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Imaging Hard Drives, Processing, Reasonably Accessible

Discovery Balancing Acts in a War Zone United States ex rel. McBride v. Halliburton Co., is a qui tam action over alleged fraudulent billing for services provided to the US military in Iraq. The case involved inflated headcounts in Morale, Welfare and Recreation (“MWR”) facilities and fraudulent billing for those costs to[…]

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[…]

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[…]

Get Out the Check Book for Translating ESI into a Reasonably Usable Form in California

August 21, 2009 Josh Gilliland California Electronic Discovery Act, Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Form of Production, Reasonably Accessible, Reasonably Useable Form

California Code of Civil Procedure 2031.280(e) states, in relevant part: If necessary, the responding party at the reasonable expense of the demanding party shall, through detection devices, translate any data compilations included in the demand into reasonably usable form. California Code of Civil Procedure 2031.280(e) might give anyone used to[…]

Rock Opera Discovery of Archived ESI

August 17, 2009 Josh Gilliland Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Form of Production, Meet & Confer, Reasonably Accessible, Request for Production

In re In re Operadora DB Mex., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68078 (M.D. Fla. May 28, 2009), is the story of an international legal dispute, arbitration and the Hard Rock Café. While all of that makes for an exciting feature act, we will rock out to the electronic discovery issues. The[…]