Our Insights on eDiscovery

If you follow eDiscovery, you probably have heard of the Zubulake case, which is probably the most famous case in eDiscovery. The judge from that case — Shira A. Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York – is retiring effective April 29.

In Moore v. Lowe’s Home Ctrs., LLC, Washington District Judge Robert J. Bryan ruled in favor of the plaintiff that documents and communications dated before the defendant anticipated litigation were not privileged work product and should be produced, but he ruled against the plaintiff in her request have the defendant perform additional searches on email to identify additional relevant documents.

In InternMatch, Inc. v. Nxtbigthing, LLC, et. al., California District Judge Jon S. Tigar, finding that the defendants “consciously disregarded their obligations to preserve relevant evidence” when they discarded various electronic devices after experiencing an alleged power surge without checking to see if they could recover any files from them, granting an adverse inference instruction sanction and plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees.

In Marten Transport, Ltd. V. Plattform Advertising, Inc., Kansas Magistrate Judge Teresa J. James denied the defendant’s Motion for Spoliation Sanctions, ruling that, although the plaintiff had a duty to preserve relevant ESI as of Fall 2013, that duty to preserve did not extend to the internet history of one of its employees until June 2015, and by then the internet history was lost.

In Malibu Media, LLC v. Doe, in a case of dueling summary judgment motions, Illinois Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown denied the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, but granted the defendant’s summary motion in its entirety, concluding that the plaintiff had not presented sufficient evidence to prove its allegations of illegally downloading movies.