Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
Electronically Stored Information (ESI) is far more than communications sent between parties; a party’s investigators can also create ESI. In a lawsuit brought by PETA against at a zoo for the treatment of animals under the Endangered Species Act, the Defendants sought photos and videos surreptitiously recorded, and related investigatory[…]
Read more
Determining the scope of discovery is of critical importance for defining a party’s duty to preserve duty. Parties legitimately can fight over whether one party’s preservation strategy is too narrow. Magistrate Judge Erin Wilder-Doomes decided this issue in a securities and unfair trade practices case in Louisiana arising from a[…]
Read more
Discovery requires thoughtful planning on how to search for electronically stored information, conferring with the opposing party on search methodologies, and following stipulations on designating ESI as Attorney-Eyes Only (AEO). The Plaintiffs in Youngevity Int’l Corp. v. Smith produced 4.2 million search term hits, designated them all AEO, and failed to[…]
Read more
“eDiscovery Day” is December 1 in recognition of the effective dates for the 2006 and 2015 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Over the last decade, eDiscovery has dramatically impacted how attorneys conduct document review. In my guest post for Everlaw on When Has a Producing Party Completed[…]
Read more
Proportionality analysis can yield surprising results. In a case involving the alleged breach of a patent license agreement over test cups used to screen urine for illegal drugs, the plaintiff sought email from two custodians knowledgeable of the Defendant’s marketing/sales and design/use of test cups. Rembrandt Diagnostics, LP v. Innovacon,[…]
Read more
In a products liability MDL case over an implanted filter in medical devices, the Defendants sought the production of social media posts in native file format. The Plaintiffs had produced the social media as PDFs and had privacy concerns with producing native files. In re Cook Med., Inc., 2017 U.S.[…]
Read more
Arizona is home of many great wonders, from the Grand Canyon to the ASU Arkfeld eDiscovery Conference. I highly recommend visiting both. Arizona now has new Rules of Civil Procedure that will continue to help litigation with electronically stored information. The new Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure go into effect[…]
Read more
I had the privilege of attending the 5th Annual ASU Arkfeld eDiscovery and Digital Evidence Conference. Michael Arkfeld, Robert Singleton, Joy Allen Woller, and the planning committee did an excellent job organizing an excellent event. The conference topics covered everything from big data analysis to the new Amendments to the[…]
Read moreAnderson Living Trust v. WPX Energy Prod., LLC, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31025, 3-4 (D.N.M. Mar. 6, 2014), is a detailed review of production requirements under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 34(b)(2)(E). The crux of the case centered on whether scanning paper documents to PDF’s made the discovery “electronically[…]
Read moreUS Senior District Judge John Kane took on multiple discovery disputes against a Plaintiff in a wage an hour case. It is an amazing case study of what could be requested in a case. Requesting Communications Off the Girlfriend’s Computer The Defendants requested all ESI communications regarding the case, which[…]
Read more