Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
Lawsuits are about people. Who did what when is the crux of every dispute. Living in an age where people can send email, text, and chat from their phones, there can be a lot of places to look for discoverable data in a dispute. The proliferation of data could make[…]
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Maintaining the parent-child relationship in productions is a long recognized requirement. A Defendant that switched archiving applications learned how tricky preservation can be in a lawsuit when attachments were not included with the parent email in a production. Here is what happened: The Defendant used Mimosa to achieve email prior[…]
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I have never been a fan of Courts limiting how many search terms parties can use to find responsive ESI with no regard for how searches in review applications work. That is right up there with blaming high litigation costs because lawyers read. Limiting search terms also could limit the[…]
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Proportionality can appear in any discovery dispute. Plaintiffs who were designated as the Primary Next of Kin (“PNOK”) of Army service members who died in the Philippines during World War II, sought the return of the service member’s remains for burial from where the remains were interned as Unknowns in[…]
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Parties in litigation often want to charge every windmill. The desire to fight every battle, or propound requests, conduct review, or issue deposition notices, can result in high costs with little results. Proportionality is one tool judges have to keep parties from destructive discovery conduct. In a contentious eDiscovery case,[…]
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In a products liability case for an “exploding” candle, the Plaintiff brought a motion to compel Bath and Body Works to produce information on ALL of the candles they sold. Problem: that is a lot of candles, including different types and fragrances. Lakes v. Bath & Body Works, LLC, 2018[…]
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In a discovery dispute over labeling representations of orange juice products, the Plaintiffs sought the production of the ESI custodial files of each witness Defendant Coca-Cola planned to call as a witness. The case is an example of how judges are teaching the world to sing about proportionality. So sit back,[…]
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Judge Cheryl Zwart provided one of the best summaries of proportionality analysis in Hurd v. City of Lincoln. The case is an employment action against the City of Lincoln with allegations of adverse actions taken on the Plaintiff after he filed discrimination and retaliation complaints. The Plaintiff had deposed five[…]
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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,[…]
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In an auto accident case, the Defendant insurance company sought discovery from a Plaintiff’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. The Plaintiff objected to all three account requests as “invasion of privacy and not relevant.” Ehrenberg v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 16-17269, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132036, at[…]
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