Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
It is dangerous for lawyers to argue information was not searched for years because of “human error.” That is right up there with saying, “Your Honor, we goofed. Are we cool?” As we learned from Judge Kevin Fox, no, we are not cool. The case involved claims for wrongful termination and[…]
Read moreNo vacation should end with people becoming Plaintiffs. Sadly, that happened on a trip to Hawaii when someone had a slip and fall in a hotel garage after exiting an elevator. Riley v. Marriott Int’l, Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135728 (W.D.N.Y.Sept. 25, 2014). The Defendant hotel maintained both video[…]
Read moreCan a Plaintiff win adverse inference instructions for the destruction of a phone recording destroyed after a one-year retention policy and whose relevance (or existence) was not known by the Defendants for two years after the event happened? Short answer is no. The test for establishing adverse inference instructions for[…]
Read moreThe Texas Supreme Court has clarified the standards for spoliation (in Texas). The rule is that Texas has a two-step process: (1) the Trial Court must determine, as a question of law, whether a party spoliated evidence, and (2) if spoliation occurred, the Court must assess an appropriate remedy. Brookshire Bros.,[…]
Read moreA Plaintiff brought a motion for tortious spoliation of evidence for the alleged destruction of a native file report after the duty to preserve triggered. The Defendants produced the written report, but the native file and its metadata were gone. Raines v. College Now Greater Cleveland, Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS[…]
Read morePuerto Rico once again has issued a thought provoking eDiscovery opinion. It’s about time we hold a conference there. The Court found the Plaintiff had offered sufficient evidence that the Defendant had a duty to preserve the personal email accounts of its former officers. The Court explained the email accounts[…]
Read moreThe important litigation hold cases are not the ones that issue monstrous sanction awards; The important cases are the ones that demonstrate the analytical framework to understand how the law works. These are the opinions that help us represent our clients in knowing what to do when litigation is reasonably[…]
Read moreA Plaintiff was fired from her job at a grocery store that she held for 21 years for allegedly adjusting her own pay. Prior to be fired, a representative from the Defendant grocery store secretly recorded an interview with her that was used as part of the decision making process[…]
Read moreHow do you know there is a duty to preserve? When two managing officers involved in the termination of an employee are repeatedly asked by an attorney for their electronic calendars, including a letter threatening an EEOC complaint if there was not an amicable resolution, and then followed by formal discovery[…]
Read moreIn a dispute involving claims of monopolistic violations regarding booking A-list DJ’s at nightclubs, the Defendants did not take any steps to preserve or review text messages on an iPhone for relevance that was lost. Christou v. Beatport, LLC, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9034, 36-39 (D. Colo. Jan. 23, 2013). While the[…]
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