Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
Court orders are not known for giving out gold stars for handling electronic discovery. If there is a court order, it is usually because of a dispute. There is a big exception to this maxim: Electronic Discovery Case Management Orders. The parties in MSR Tr. v. Nationstar Mortg., filed a[…]
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There are some big “no-no’s” in civil litigation. Printing ESI before scanning it as a few PDFs totalling 8,000 pages for production is one of them. This case had that bad life choice plus a few more. The Form of Production This is a case with multiple defendants getting into[…]
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US Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave entered the fray on a dispute over search terms in a lawsuit with allegations of targeting employees to join a competitor exchanged proposed search terms to identify relevant information after discovery requests had been propounded. As one can expect when there is a motion to[…]
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A plaintiff brought a lawsuit against a hotel for “hidden” Environmental Fees of $2.99 per night that turned into a reservation with motions to compel ESI in native file format. Kratzer v Scott Hotel Group, LLC, 2019 U.S. Dist, LEXIS 230063 (S.D. Ind., Apr. 23, 2019). The original discovery dispute[…]
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Producing discovery as large PDFs is a sure way to end up in motion practice. In White v Wiseman, such a production was called “nonresponsive to the discovery requests.” White v Wiseman, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119121, *2 (D. Utah, July 6, 2020). Here is what happened: the Producing Party[…]
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There is a very important reality to remember when it comes to discovery: documents do not mean electronically stored information. It is time to get used to that distinction and stop saying, “document” when a lawyer means, “electronically stored information.” The reason is simple: the new California Code of Civil[…]
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Bow Tie Law first went live on December 30, 2008. I want to thank everyone who has been a steadfast reader and friend over the last 10 years. I wanted to share the “origin story” of the blog on its anniversary. I first started wearing bow ties in January 2007.[…]
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December 1, 2006 seems like a lifetime ago when the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure first truly incorporated rules for electronically stored information. It was a time before to iPhones, Netflix, or Marvel movies. Fast-forward to the end of 2018 and attorneys are still having challenges with producing electronically stored[…]
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Lawyers have to answer a very basic question in preparing a case for trial: How can we prove damages? In a patent case with a discovery dispute over lost-profit damages, the ultimate question was what damages were “adequate to compensate for the infringement” and how to prove them. Polaris Indus. v.[…]
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Electronically Stored Information has progressed beyond email messages in lawsuits. In a multi-vehicle accident involving a UPS truck, the Plaintiff sought ESI including daily reports of the driver. These reports were listed in an interrogatory response and the Plaintiff claimed the Defendant had a duty to preserve them. Merriweather v.[…]
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