Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
Williams v. City of Franklin, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33200 (M.D. Tenn. Apr. 16, 2009) is an ESI free for all. The case is a local political drama that sounds like a Hollywood production. There are threatening text messages from an alderman and then rummaging through an employee’s laptops for[…]
Read moreUnited States v. McRae, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32411 (W.D. Tenn. Apr. 15, 2009) is a 1983 action against a police office for violating a prisoner’s rights. The incident was captured on video and had been broadcast on the news, with denouncements and outcry from politicians, public figures, the Plaintiffs[…]
Read moreTwo drug companies in litigation ended up in a legal brawl over spoliation of backup tapes. The Defendants claimed the Plaintiffs either intentionally or recklessly destroyed back up tapes with key email messages that tended to show the Plaintiffs’ drug “escitalopram” did not produce “unexpected results” and therefore was “obvious.”[…]
Read moreIn a trade secret case, the Defendants attempted to strike the Plaintiffs’ complaint pursuant to the California Anti-SLAPP statute. The Defendants failed to make a prima facie showing that the complaint arose from protected activity. World Fin. Group v. Hbw Ins. & Fin. Servs., 2009 Cal. App. LEXIS 553 (Cal.[…]
Read moreEvery now and then, there comes a case that gives me law school flashbacks. Professor Rohwer, my old Contracts professor, this one’s for you. Harris v. Blockbuster, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31531 (N.D. Tex. Apr. 15, 2009) involves Blockbuster allegedly violating the Video Privacy Protection Act. Blockbuster Online (an online[…]
Read moreRahman v. Smith & Wollensky Rest. Group, Inc., is an employment discrimination case where the Defendants produced guest checks from a database in PDF format on CD-ROM, in three-year batches, with a unique index number identifying each check. Rahman v. Smith & Wollensky Rest. Group, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS[…]
Read moreI watched David Boies argue the original Napster case on CSPAN while taking Computer and Internet Law at McGeorge, University of the Pacific. David Boies is more remembered for later representing Vice President Al Gore in the Bush v Gore legal saga. Online music downloads have caused litigation with the[…]
Read moreI participated in a symposium at Creighton University School of Law on April 3, 2009, presenting “Modern Issues in e-Discovery.” The symposium was extremely well attended with attorneys from Nebraska and Iowa. It was a privilege to present to attorneys and law students on current e-Discovery issues. Thanks go to[…]
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This Opinion should serve as a wake-up call to the Bar in this District about the need for careful thought, quality control, testing, and cooperation with opposing counsel in designing search terms or “keywords” to be used to produce emails or other electronically stored information (“ESI”). Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck,[…]
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Inspection or testing of certain types of electronically stored information or of a responding party’s electronic information system may raise issues of confidentiality or privacy. The addition of testing and sampling to Rule 34(a) with regard to documents and electronically stored information is not meant to create a routine right[…]
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