Discovery – Page 4 – Bow Tie Law

When is an Employee Expert an Expert Who Must Prepare a Report?

April 5, 2010 Josh Gilliland Civil Procedure, Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information

In the epic legal battle over patents and floppy disk controller defects dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, the Defendants brought a motion to compel the Plaintiff, who was an employee of his own company, who did not regularly testify as an expert on the company’s behalf, to prepare[…]

Undue Burden Arguments Must Be Specific, Not Speculative

March 25, 2010 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Request for Production

Seger v. Ernest-Spencer Metals is the story of an industrial accident where the Plaintiff suffered serious bodily injury. In the ensuing discovery battle, the Producing Party claimed the electronically stored information was from sources that were not reasonably accessible due to undue burden. Seger v. Ernest-Spencer Metals, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS[…]

Piercing the Work Product Doctrine: Gamesmanship with Locked PDF’s

February 10, 2010 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Form of Production, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production

The Plaintiffs in Mack v. HH Gregg, Inc. sued the Defendants for breach of contract over the alleged failed installation of dryers. The parties agreed the Defendants would produce a “summary of its dryer installation invoices that would include the state of the sale, date of purchase, amount paid for delivery[…]

The Form of Production Battle of the Bulge: Scanned PDF’s Not a Reasonably Useable Form

January 25, 2010 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Foreign Discovery, Form of Production, Native File, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production

“In the court’s experience, scanned PDFs, as opposed to electronically-produced PDFs, are not reasonably usable.” Magistrate Judge Paul M. Warner In Accessdata Corp. v. Alste Techs. Gmbh, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4566 (D. Utah Jan. 21, 2010), a United States based company that produces forensic software used in e-Discovery, entered into a contract with[…]

The Low Speed Chase that Gives Us Admissible Cell Phone Photo after a Warrantless Search

January 12, 2010 Josh Gilliland Criminal Procedure, Discovery, Duty to Preserve, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Reasonable Expectation of Privacy, Spoliation, Text Messages

A police officer stopped a car driving with a flat tire, cracked windshield and its bright lights on. People v. Gorostiza, 2009 Cal. App. Unpub. Lexis 9494 at *1. The passengers might have been hoping, “There is nothing to see here.” After stopping the car with the Defendant and two passengers,[…]

No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Abandoned CD’s

January 10, 2010 Josh Gilliland Criminal Procedure, Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

A criminal defendant was convicted of possession of child pornography, based on CD’s and other media he left after vacating an apartment. The Supreme Court of New Hampshire found he had no expectation of privacy in the abandoned media and that the search of the media was proper. State v.[…]

Bow Tie Law 1st Anniversary

December 30, 2009 Josh Gilliland Blogging, Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Exclusion of Evidence, Litigation Hold

December 30, 2009 marks the first anniversary of “Bow Tie Law.” 2009 was a watershed year of case law, with litigation hold opinions coming up weekly this summer; the mandatory exclusion of ESI for the failure to disclose or supplement discovery; and judges holding attorneys to a higher standard for electronically stored[…]

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[…]

Admissibility of Email Strings and Co-Conspirator Emails

December 7, 2009 Josh Gilliland Conspiracy, Discovery, Document Review, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, ESI, Exclusion of Evidence, Hearsay

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are frequent superstars spotlighting requests and production of electronically stored information in case law. Whether or not such discovery is admissible is another story. Park W. Radiology & Park W. Circle Realty v. Carecore Nat’l Llc, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110282 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 19, 2009) is[…]

Boarding a Flight with Foreign Based Discovery for the Holidays

November 25, 2009 Josh Gilliland Discovery, e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, Email, Foreign Discovery

In the spirit of holiday travel, the Plaintiffs in Park v. Korean Air Lines Co., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107647 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 18, 2009) brought a motion to compel discovery regarding tickets purchased in South Korea to show price fixing. As quickly as you can say “What’s your clearance,[…]