Bow Tie Law

Discovery Games in Gaming Litigation

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[…]

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Federal Rule of Evidence 502(b): Not to be Gutted Like a Fish

Magistrate Judge Facciola addressed Federal Rule of Evidence Rule 502(b) with the inadvertent disclosure of a memorandum protected by the work product doctrine, in a case involving an officer with the DC Department of Corrections.  Amobi v. D.C. Dep’t of Corr., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114270, 20-21 (D.D.C. Dec. 8, 2009). […]

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Proving Conspiracies with Electronically Stored Information

There is no shortage of people utilizing technology to facilitate illicit or questionable actions.  Below are two recent examples. Price Fixing Conspiracy In In re Static Random Access Memory Antitrust Litigation, the Plaintiffs alleged the Defendants engaged in a ten year conspiracy to fix and maintain artificially high prices for Static[…]

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Brewing Issues in Social Networking Litigation: How to Freak Out Co-Workers and Get Fired

A barista was fired from Starbucks for “inappropriate conduct and threatening violence to Starbucks and its employees.” Mai-Trang Thi Nguyen v. Starbucks Coffee Corp., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113461 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 7, 2009).  The Plaintiff in turn sued for sexual harassment, retaliation, religious discrimination, violations of the California Occupational Safety[…]

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Admissibility of Email Strings and Co-Conspirator Emails

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[…]

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New Bad Idea: Claiming You Can Produce ESI as PDF’s because “Native File” is “Ambiguous”

In Cenveo Corp. v. Southern Graphic Sys., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108623 (D. Minn. Nov. 18, 2009), the Defendant propounded the following discovery request: “Defendant requests that these documents be produced in native format with all attachments in native format.” Cenveo Corp., at *2. The Plaintiff produced all electronically stored information[…]

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Bribing Witnesses with Text Messages, Cell Phones and Fake Email Accounts

Sometimes there are fact patterns that surprise you how far we have come with technology and the foolishness of people.  In People v. McInnis, the Defendant was convicted of attempted witness bribery.  The Defendant attempted to keep witnesses from testifying against the Defendant’s nephew, in the nephew’s trial for robbery and kidnapping. […]

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BlackBerry Boo-Boos: How to Get the Judge to Text You Adverse Inference Instructions

Southeastern Mechanical Services, Inc., v Brody, et al., is the story of how wiping the data off your BlackBerry can result with the Court having you drawn and quartered.  Not with horses, but with adverse inference instructions. In a trade secret case where Individual Defendants left the Plaintiff’s company and[…]

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