Our Insights on eDiscovery

In Mann, et al. v. City of Chicago, et al, Illinois Magistrate Judge Mary M. Rowland granted in part and denied in part the plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel the defendant to include certain custodians in their email search, ordering the defendant to search emails of five additional custodians (including the Mayor of Chicago), but not requiring the defendant to search emails for an additional three custodians requested by the plaintiff. Judge Rowland also denied the plaintiffs’ request for sanctions, finding that the defendant’s conduct was not sanctionable.

As Tom O’Connor and I discussed last week in our ACEDS webinar Key eDiscovery Case Law Review for First Half of 2017, Google was ordered earlier this year to produce foreign stored emails by judges in California and Pennsylvania in response to government warrants. Last month, Google’s request for review on the two cases (and interpretation of Section 2703 of the Stored Communications Act of 1986) didn’t change the results.

In New Mexico Oncology v. Presbyterian Healthcare Servs, New Mexico Magistrate Judge Gregory B. Wormuth, detailing numerous defendant discovery deficiencies alleged by the plaintiff, ruled that the “harsh sanctions of default judgment or an adverse jury instruction” requested by the plaintiff “are not warranted” and instead opted to require the defendant to pay plaintiff costs related to activities resulting from defendants’ over-designation of documents as privileged and recommended that the defendants be ordered to pay the plaintiff 75% of the costs associated with its Motion for Sanctions including all fees paid to expert witnesses to prepare reports and testify at the motion hearing.

The best predictor of future behavior is relevant past behavior. Nowhere is that more true than with legal precedents set by past case law decisions, especially when it relates to eDiscovery best practices. Are you aware of recent case law decisions related to eDiscovery best practices and what that those decisions mean to your organization? Thanks to our friends at ACEDS, you can learn a lot about those case law decisions today.