Josh Gilliland

Bates Numbering ESI & Other Dates with a Recycle Bin

March 28, 2011 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Form of Production, Meet & Confer, Metadata, Native File, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production, TIFF

There are battles that do not make sense. This is one of those cases. In a civil dispute over fraudulent investments, the Plaintiff brought a motion to compel the Defendant to “Bates Label” electronically stored information in native file format, because the local Discovery Practices Handbook required Bates numbering of[…]

Bringing Reasonableness to Undue Burden

March 23, 2011 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Search Terms, Undue Burden

Hock Food, Inc. v. William Blair & Co., is a dispute over the calculation of the “success” fees paid to the Defendant in assisting the Plaintiff with the sale of their business interests. Hock Foods, Inc. v. William Blair & Co., L.L.C., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24874 (D. Kan. Mar.[…]

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[…]

Driving the Snakes from e-Discovery Seminar

March 8, 2011 Josh Gilliland California Electronic Discovery Act, Civil Procedure, e-Discovery

Driving the Snakes from e-Discovery, the first seminar by the Santa Clara County Bar Association e-Discovery Task, will be on March 17, 2011 in San Jose, California. This two-hour seminar is the first of a four-part series on e-Discovery in Silicon Valley. To register for the panel, please click here. […]

The “Friendly” Jurors & Stored Communication Act

March 3, 2011 Josh Gilliland Jury Blogging, Jury Disqualification, Jury Selection, Stored Communications Act

It is surprising this has not happened earlier: Two jurors meet and “friend” each other on Facebook during a criminal trial in California State Court. The Criminal Defendant is found guilty. Juror Number Five later informed the Criminal Defense Attorney the Juror Number One (hereinafter the Plaintiff) made comments about[…]

A Civil Procedure Car Crash

February 24, 2011 Josh Gilliland Back-up Tape, Civil Procedure, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Initial Disclosures

A short Civil Procedure Overview: 1) A protective order must correspond to a discovery request; and 2) A motion to compel needs to have an underlying request. In an auto-recall case, the Plaintiff had produced 1.79 million pages of documents in discovery, plus an additional 84,000 pages of documents from[…]

Fashionable Sanctions

February 17, 2011 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Litigation Hold, Spoliation

When sanctions are issued in Chicago on St. Valentine’s Day, you can imagine how the losing party might feel. The Defendants in a sexual and racial discrimination, hostile work environment, harassment and retaliation case did not properly preserve evidence or respond to specific discovery requests. Northington v. H&M Int’l, 2011[…]

Tagging Damages for Violating the CAN-SPAM Act on a Social Networking Site

February 14, 2011 Josh Gilliland Facebook, Privacy

A registered Facebook user allegedly gained unauthorized access to 116,000 Facebook accounts and sent in excess of 7.2 million spam email messages. Facebook, Inc. v. Fisher, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9668, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 26, 2011). These spam emails were designed to “phish” for log-in information from Facebook[…]

Nothing Says “Bad Faith” Like Throwing a Laptop off a Building

February 8, 2011 Josh Gilliland Duty to Preserve, Electronically Stored Information, Litigation Hold, Spoliation

Is entering a default judgment against a party for destroying a laptop excessive and unduly harsh? Not in Utah. Daynight, LLC v. Mobilight, Inc., 2011 UT App 28, P2 (Utah Ct. App. 2011). Daynight involved a destroyed laptop and what was the appropriate sanction for the destruction of evidence. Certainly[…]