Knotty Issues of eDiscovery
There are many lawyers who have an unnatural fear of producing associated metadata with ESI productions. I have always viewed this as producing printed paper without ink on the pages. This is one of cases where I scratch my head at the way the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is[…]
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Discovery disputes often result in strong judicial rebukes. Then there are the judges who work in a good Star Wars reference in an opinion. This case has both. Judge Richard Jones must have felt he was dealing with a phantom menace of discovery disputes, because most of the issues in[…]
Read moreThe form of production and metadata are center of many motions in compel. One such battle was fought in a case in Alaska regarding insurance coverage. The requesting party sought the production of an affidavit of a deceased insured that was key to determining whether a vehicle was covered or[…]
Read morePick your battles is a truism in form of production disputes. In Feist v. Paxfire, Inc., the Plaintiff alleged the Defendant made multiple discovery abuses, from producing email in .msg format and not as TIFF, to making an “intentionally burdensome production.” Feist v. Paxfire, Inc., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145024[…]
Read moreOh, Rule 34. You are the code section that keeps giving. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 34(b)(2)(E)(i), a party “must produce documents as they are kept in the usual course of business or must organize and label them to correspond to the categories in the request.” A Plaintiff brought[…]
Read moreParties end up in litigation often because trust has been broken. Distrust can make discovery in civil litigation even more of a legal brawl than anyone enjoys. In Malone v. Kantner Ingredients, the Plaintiffs seriously did not trust the Defendants’ discovery productions. The Plaintiffs alleged the Defendants failed to produce[…]
Read moreNot all native files are in a “reasonably useable form.” To borrow from the Dark Knight, sometimes, producing native files as PDF’s with metadata is the “reasonably useable” form you deserve, but not the one you need for convenient document review. A Plaintiff sought a native file production from a[…]
Read moreThe Defendants in employment litigation sought the mirror imaging of the Plaintiff’s personal computers three years after she had been terminated. The crux of the eDiscovery centered on the former employee forwarding emails from her supervisors email to her personal account, which the Defendants claimed were lost by the Plaintiff. The Court[…]
Read moreExxonMobil Pipeline had a problem in discovery: their discovery responses were overdue. The requests for production was served in November 2013 and due after one extension in January 2014. The Plaintiffs rightly brought a motion to compel. The Defendants had enough discovery to give most eDiscovery attorneys a migraine with[…]
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Thank You Litigation World! This article won the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award. The editors of LitigationWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for litigators and others who work in litigation, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience. A defendant[…]
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