Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
A soldier was convicted for being absent without leave (AWOL) after finding out his Army unit’s deployment was extended to a year in Iraq. United States v. Scheuerman, 2009 CAAF LEXIS 812, 7-8 (C.A.A.F. 2009). The Defendant claimed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, which is why he went AWOL. […]
Read moreWho knew 140 characters, a few status messages, and tags could play a big role in a court opinion hitting juror misconduct? It is not a huge surprise in a criminal case involving politics, money and fraud. A Little Background: The Criminal Case against the Defendants Multiple Defendants were charged[…]
Read moreA lot can happen in 140 characters. Someone can tag their way right into a lawsuit with a Wall to Wall Message, a public note or a Tweet. This is one of those cases. Procedural History In a defamation case, a Philadelphia attorney (Plaintiff Corcoran) with a boutique copyright practice[…]
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The ease of creating a MySpace profile (or Twitter) that impersonates a celebrity has to be nerve racking for actors, rock stars, and anyone else who is “famous.” Riggs v. Myspace, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37109 (W.D. Pa. May 5, 2009) is the story of a Plaintiff who created[…]
Read moreA Facebook user in Massachusetts was facing criminal charges in Massachusetts for criminal harassment and threats to commit a crime from Facebook messages. Skerry, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38804, 1-2 (D. Cal. 2009). The Petitioner sought the emergency deposition of Facebook’s “recorder keeper” because of the concern Facebook periodically purged its information system. Skerry, 2-4.
Read moreEvery now and then, there comes a case that gives me law school flashbacks. Professor Rohwer, my old Contracts professor, this one’s for you. Harris v. Blockbuster, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31531 (N.D. Tex. Apr. 15, 2009) involves Blockbuster allegedly violating the Video Privacy Protection Act. Blockbuster Online (an online[…]
Read moreA Federal Court in Puerto Rico addressed a specific question: What sort of ESI is a social networking message? Is it an email? A blog? Or something else? Maldonado v. Municipality of Barceloneta, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19842 (D.P.R. Mar. 11, 2009) is a case where a party sought a protective order to[…]
Read moreFacebook, YouTube and a whole list of other social networking sites are used every second of every day. People are Twittering their lives away online from their BlackBerries. There is no shortage of growing case law with online conduct leading to civil or criminal litigation. Here are several recent examples:[…]
Read moreThe internet is creating emerging legal issues, from jurisdiction to discovery. The identification of anonymous bloggers-posting defamatory statements on the internet–is one of those issues. Judge Rory J. Bellantoni, Ottinger v. Non-Party The Journal News In Ottinger v. Non-Party The Journal News, 2008 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4579 (N.Y. Sup.[…]
Read moreIt started with JenniCam when I was in college: People crying for attention and utilizing technology to express themselves with a cultish following.[1] Julia Allison has taken this to a new level of Internet self-promotion that highlights a strange effect on litigation. For those not familiar with her, Julia Allison[…]
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