Our blog discusses the latest cases (good and bad) that affect plaintiff trial attorneys every week, and the following is our Top 5 Plaintiff eDiscovery cases of 2012:
5. Race Tires America, Inc. LLC v. Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. (Race Tires II), No. 11-2316, 2012 WL 887593 (3d Cir. Mar. 16, 2012). The Third Circuit rejected defendant’s argument that all the electronic discovery costs were the equivalent of “making copies” under Federal Rule 54(d), and greatly reduced its cost-shifting award from $400,000 to $30,000. How the attorneys refrained from cracking a Saturday Night Live joke during oral arguments remains unknown.
4. Global Aerospace, Inc., et al. v. Landow Aviation, L.P. d/b/a Dulles Jet Center, et al., (Case No. CL 61040). One of the first cases to endorse computer-assisted document review and predictive coding to cull ESI productions at a lower cost and faster rate than traditional human review.
3. Haeger v. Goodyear Tire and RubberCo., No. CV-05-02046-RHX-ROS (D.Ct.Ariz. Nov. 8, 2012). Defendant Goodyear took some major heat from the trial judge, who imposed serious sanctions after Goodyear and its counsel concealed relevant documents and made multiple misrepresentations before the court.
2. EEOC v. The Original Honeybaked Ham Company of Georgia, Inc. (2012 WL 5430974)(D.Colo. Nov. 7, 2012). The court ordered plaintiff ESI production to include class members’ text messages and total access to email and social media accounts. Although an objective computer forensics expert would deliver this information to the court for an in camera review, it may send a chill down the back of anyone concerned with privacy rights (and/or who uses Facebook!).
1. Taylor v. Mitre Corporation, 2012 WL 5473573 (E.D.Va. Nov. 8, 2012). Plaintiffs as well as defendants have a duty to preserve evidence, and parties who engage in spoliation will face serious sanctions. (As the case demonstrated, refrain from taking a sledgehammer to your computer to destroy evidence, as that will likely get your case dismissed!)
For more information about our plaintiff eDiscovery services, call us at 888-313-4457.