Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
R.F.M.A.S., Inc. v. So is the story of a copyright infringement and trade dress suit over jewelry designs. The extensive opinion covers everything from spoliation to discovery requests. A small section of the opinion addresses requesting the metadata of photos. R.F.M.A.S., Inc. v. So, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83247 (S.D.N.Y.[…]
Read moreA HR professional emailed to his home computer the personnel files of 68 employees when he feared layoffs were coming. That is only the beginning of a really ugly fact pattern. The data included past and current employee names, social security numbers, date of births, compensation, and addresses. The former employer[…]
Read moreIn a form of production battle, the producing party claimed they were denied the opportunity to object to the form of production, because the requesting party did not state a form of production. The Court did not need to use Pi to solve this circular argument. Procedural Circles After a motion[…]
Read moreIn a reverse confusion trademark infringement case, the Plaintiff made software named CakeBoss. The Plaintiff had a website with the same name and registered their trademark. Masters Software, Inc. v. Discovery Communs., Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79584, at *1-3 (W.D. Wash. July 16, 2010). Tasting the Difference The Discovery[…]
Read moreIn a negligence case where a plaintiff was the victim of a car crash, the Defendant trucking company attempted to introduce out-of-time third-party custodian affidavits and witnesses on the last day of discovery. Boling v. Mohawk Indus., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75674 (D.S.C. July 27, 2010). The Court denied the[…]
Read moreLitigants often weld spoliation sanctions for the destruction of evidence like it is a stake to pound in the heart of a vampire. However, the triggering event for the duty to preserve, whether there has been spoliation and the issue of bad faith boils down to one issue: Timing. In[…]
Read moreThe ridiculously high number of irrelevant materials and the large volume of privileged communications produced demonstrate a lack of reasonableness. Robert C. Chambers, United States District Court Judge Preparing electronic discovery takes careful review and following Judge Grimm’s Victor Stanley checklist. That did not happen in this case. The Plaintiffs[…]
Read moreShanahan v. Superior Court, is an unpublished California opinion that furthers the story of confidential communications sent from a business computer. Shanahan v. Superior Court, 2010 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 5756 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. July 21, 2010) Privacy at Work…Literally and Figuratively Privacy interests originating from electronically stored information created at[…]
Read moreA humorous e-Discovery tale. [Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/fTLhq3-BqUY&hl=en_US&fs=1]
Read moreWhy would a juror’s online research be a “problem” for a criminal defendant? Because an “extrinsic influence on a jury’s deliberations violates a defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights to an impartial jury, to confront witnesses against him, and to be present at all critical stages of his trial.” United States v.[…]
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