Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
December 1 is “eDiscovery Day.” On this eDiscovery Day, two new Amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence go into effect with the intention to make authenticating evidence easier. These Amendments do not alter or eliminate any other methods to authenticate electronically stored information. Below are the pending Amendments to[…]
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Social media is just another form of electronically stored information. Attorneys are getting very good at making proportional requests for relevant social media in a lawsuit. Judges also know how to rein in overly broad social media requests for production. In a case with allegations that a tractor trailer negligently[…]
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In a products liability MDL case over an implanted filter in medical devices, the Defendants sought the production of social media posts in native file format. The Plaintiffs had produced the social media as PDFs and had privacy concerns with producing native files. In re Cook Med., Inc., 2017 U.S.[…]
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In an auto accident case, the Defendant insurance company sought discovery from a Plaintiff’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. The Plaintiff objected to all three account requests as “invasion of privacy and not relevant.” Ehrenberg v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 16-17269, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132036, at[…]
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Social media is just another form of electronically stored information. Requests for social media in discovery have dramatically improved since the days of lawyers requesting entire Facebook profiles or Twitter accounts. Case in point, here is a defendant’s request for social media from a recent personal injury case: Produce all[…]
Read moreIf a basketball player posts a public photo to Instagram, and then another basketball player reposts the photo, can the first basketball player sue for Invasion of Privacy, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, Defamation, and General Negligence? The answer is yes, you can sue, but you will not survive a[…]
Read moreSocial media being offered into evidence in any case will almost always have hearsay objections if the proffered evidence is a status update, comment, Tweet, or even video. The reason? Virtually everything on social media is a statement. Unless the social media is only a photo with no text, there[…]
Read moreHere are two tips on social media discovery: Tip One: Get an expert who knows how to collect the electronically stored information on social media. Tip Two: Downloading a Facebook profile, printing it, and conducting document review for redactions is not the best way to produce social media. The Defendants[…]
Read moreRequesting social media relevant to a lawsuit should be done as standard operating procedure now. However, some attorney have a difficult time with narrowing their requests beyond, “Produce your Facebook profile.” Such fishing expeditions are summarily denied. See, Tompkins v. Detroit Metro. Airport, 278 F.R.D. 387 ( E.D. Mich. 2012),[…]
Read moreWe live in a world where people walk around with phones that have more computing power than the Lunar Lander. A recent case highlighted the importance of how data on these devices can enter a lawsuit. In US v Davis, Instagram photos were used to help demonstrate a conspiracy between the[…]
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