Request for Production – Page 7

How Undue Burden Can Reach Out and Touch a Requesting Party

June 27, 2011 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Request for Production, Voicemail

In General Steel Domestic Sales, LLC v. Chumley, the Requesting Party sought production of 463,000 recordings of sales phone calls. And like one of the old long distance commercials of the 1980s, the Requesting Party was left crying at the end. General Steel Domestic Sales, LLC v. Chumley, 2011 U.S.[…]

The $1.9 Million Price Tag on Undue Burden

May 18, 2011 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Motion to Compel, Request for Production

The Plaintiffs in Thermal Design, Inc. v. Guardian Bldg. Prods., brought a motion to compel the Defendants “Defendants to search all archived e-mail accounts and shared network drives, without any restriction as to custodian or individual.” Thermal Design, Inc. v. Guardian Bldg. Prods., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50108 (E.D. Wis.[…]

The Confirmation of Existence…Of Responsive ESI

April 4, 2011 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Imaging Hard Drives, Request for Production, Search Terms

EEOC v. Jp Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., is gender discrimination case with multiple discovery disputes. EEOC v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34409, 6-7 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 30, 2011). One request for production called for “[w]hatever hardware, software, files, metadata, and properties in Defendant’s possession that[…]

Bates Numbering ESI & Other Dates with a Recycle Bin

March 28, 2011 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Form of Production, Meet & Confer, Metadata, Native File, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production, TIFF

There are battles that do not make sense. This is one of those cases. In a civil dispute over fraudulent investments, the Plaintiff brought a motion to compel the Defendant to “Bates Label” electronically stored information in native file format, because the local Discovery Practices Handbook required Bates numbering of[…]

A PDF Production is Not How a Native File is Ordinarily Maintained

December 17, 2010 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Native File, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production

In a production dispute over native files, Magistrate Judge Paul Cherry shows us (again) that producing native files as non-searchable PDF’s does not comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 34. Jannx Med. Sys. v. Methodist Hosps., Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122574 (N.D. Ind. Nov. 17, 2010). Federal Rule[…]

Circular Form of Production Objections

August 16, 2010 Josh Gilliland e-Discovery, Electronically Stored Information, ESI, Form of Production, Reasonably Useable Form, Request for Production

In a form of production battle, the producing party claimed they were denied the opportunity to object to the form of production, because the requesting party did not state a form of production. The Court did not need to use Pi to solve this circular argument. Procedural Circles After a motion[…]

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[…]

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[…]