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Court Refuses To Order Production of Ballot Metadata
In White v. Skagit County and Island County, Case No. 72028-7-I (July 13, 2015), Plaintiff demanded that Defendant produce copies of voting ballots under the Public Records Act. Defendants objected, arguing that the Public Records Act (which requires that public records be made available for inspection and copying unless exempt
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Court Concludes That It Lacks The Expertise to Resolve Complex ESI Issue
In ACI Worldwide Corp. v. MasterCard Technologies, LLC and MasterCard International, Inc., Case No. 8:14CV31 (Jul. 13, 2015), the District Court for the District of Nebraska considered Plaintiff’s motion to compel Defendants to produce ESI related to complex computer licensing. Plaintiff alleged that Defendants disclosed confidential proprietary information to a third party,
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Court Orders Evidentiary Hearing on ESI Spoliation Allegations
In Harte et. al. v. Board of Commissioners of Johnson County Kansas, et. al., Case No. 13-cv-02586 (July 13, 2015), the District Court for the District of Kansas considered Plaintiffs’ motion to impose sanctions against Defendants for “obstructive practices in conducting discovery.” The suit alleges that on April 20, 2012 Defendants improperly entered
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Amended FRCP Likely Effective as of December 1, 2015
Proposed Amendments to FRCP 1, 4, 16, 26, 30, 31, 33, 34, 37 and 55 were approved by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 29, 2015 and submitted to Congress. Absent some contrary action by Congress, the amended FRCP will become effective December 1, 2015. The Amendments will have a significant impact
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Court Declines to Withdraw Bankruptcy Court Reference Due to ESI Concerns
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan recently considered whether to “withdraw the reference” to bankruptcy court (e.g., remove the matter from the bankruptcy court’s consideration) in an adversary proceeding where discovery was still ongoing. In Vulpina, LLC v. Dzierzawski (In re Dzierzawski), Bankruptcy Case No. 13-47986, Adversary Proceeding No.
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Court Refuses to Order Additional Custodial Production
In Pan American Life Insurance Co. v. Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., et. al., Case No. 13-5027 (Jul. 9, 2015), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana considered Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel production of additional ESI from a yet unsearched custodian. After Defendants’ initial document production, Plaintiff sought production of additional
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Failure to Seek Native Format and Metadata at Outset Sinks Plaintiff Request
In U.S. ex rel Carter v. Bridgepoint Education, Inc., et. al., Case No. 10-01401, the Southern District of California considered, among other things, Plaintiffs’ request that Defendants produce emails in native format and produce metadata for all ESI, including for ESI already produced by Defendants. Defendants, an education company that receives most
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9th Circuit Rules that a Marker Placed by Google Earth Does Not Constitute Hearsay
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently considered whether a Google Earth satellite image and a digital “tack” obtained by Google Earth with GPS coordinates constitutes hearsay. In U.S. v. Lizarraga-Tirado, Case No. 13-10530 (9th Cir. Jun. 18, 2015), the 9th Circuit affirmed the conviction of Defendant for his illegal re-entry into
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Court Finds No Spoliation Despite Destruction of Privileged Files
In Charvat et. al. v. Valente et. al., 12-5746, the Northern District of Illinois considered whether Defendant Carnival Corporation had engaged in spoliation when it deleted certain files from its employees’ computers after those employees had ceased working for Carnival. Plaintiffs sued based upon alleged improper conduct by one of the defendants,
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Court Denies Spoliation Argued For the First Time on Appeal
In Zamsky v. Dodge Premier, Inc. et. al., No. 2107 EDA 2014 (Jun. 23, 2015), the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held that an appellant could not argue that the lower court ignored potential spoliation by the appellee without supporting the argument with some legal authority. Plaintiff filed suit against a