Our Insights on eDiscovery

In Cahill v. Dart, Illinois District Judge John Z. Lee adopted, with modifications, the Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge Cox regarding the plaintiff’s motion to sanction the defendants for destruction of evidence, indicating that Judge Cox’s proposed sanction would be imposed and also that the jury would be informed that the defendants failed to meet their duty to preserve video, giving the plaintiff the option to argue to the jury that the failure to preserve the video was intentional.

In Reed v. Kindercare Learning Centers et. al., Washington District Judge Benjamin H. Settle (yes, that’s his real name!) granted the plaintiff’s motion for discovery sanctions with respect to spoliation of physical evidence in the form of the facility where the plaintiff worked, but denied the plaintiff’s motion with regard to spoliation of ESI.

In Venturdyne, Ltd. d/b/a Scientific Dust Collectors v. Carbonyx, Inc., d/b/a Carbonyx Carbon Technologies, et. al., Indiana District Judge John E. Martin ordered the defendant to produce additional ESI to the plaintiff to be retrieved via 78 “unopposed” search terms that neither party objected to during negotiation over the plaintiff’s original list of 126 search terms.

We almost made it the entire year without an update on the ubiquitous Apple v. Samsung case. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, this long lasting case isn’t done yet.

In Companion Property and Casualty Insurance Company v. U.S. Bank N.A., South Carolina District Judge J. Michelle Childs determined that the plaintiff’s categorical Privilege Log was inadequate and ordered the plaintiff to provide to the defendant a metadata log for all documents withheld or redacted, affidavit(s) from the person(s) with knowledge regarding the privileged third party and common interest parties and a list of anticipated litigation(s) for the documents withheld on the basis of work product protection.