Discovery

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Aldinger v. Alden State Bank is a good reminder of counsel’s obligation to be cooperative in the discovery process.

Aldinger, an employment discrimination case pending in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, involved a series of discovery disputes including Plaintiff’s motion to compel Defendant to respond to her First Request for the Production of…
Continue Reading Federal Judge Finds it is Counsels’ Absence of Good Faith and Cooperation Causing an Increase in Duration and Expense of Litigation

A recent federal district court decision, Lawson et al. v Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc., US Dist Ct, MD Pa, 1:17-CV-1266, Carlson, J., 2019, reminds litigants of the need to tailor discovery requests for electronically stored information (“ESI”).

Before the Court was plaintiffs’ motion to compel defendants’ production of “all” text messages on approximately 100 company-owned…
Continue Reading Federal Court Denies Request for Wholesale Disclosure of Text Messages

Yikes!  No practitioner wants to be on the receiving end of a decision that starts with the title of this post.  And yet, that’s precisely how Magistrate Judge Bloom started her decision in Abbott Laboratories v. Adelphia Supply USA (15 cv 5826 [CBA] [LB]), ECF No. 1545 .  Abbott serves as an important reminder to practitioners that we need to…
Continue Reading A Cautionary Tale About How Not to Conduct Discovery in Federal Court

The issue of production format when dealing with ESI is often the subject of discussion and disagreement.  If possible, the parties to the litigation should agree at the outset to the production format.   In fact, a conversation about production format, metadata and redactions (among other things) should occur at the preliminary conference and/or the Rule 26 conference. However, this…
Continue Reading In What Format Should I Make My Production? And, Does Format Matter?

I am often asked by clients and subscribers to the blog, What is E-discovery?  And so, this week’s post is intended to respond to that question.

E-discovery is the abbreviated term for electronic discovery and refers to the process in which electronic data (as compared to paper or object information) is sought, located, secured, reviewed and produced for use as…
Continue Reading What Is E-Discovery?

This is Part 3 in a multi-part blog discussing various critical requirements that can serve as the road map to allow a lawyer to fulfill his/her duty of technological competence. [Click here to read Part 1 and here to read Part 2]..

After you have assessed the discovery needs and issues in a given matter, and you have implemented appropriate …
Continue Reading A Lawyer’s Obligation to be Technologically Competent – Part 3

Often viewed as a necessary evil, the Rule 26(f) conference can serve as an invaluable opportunity to meaningfully discuss discovery such that the process is streamlined and seeks to avoid unnecessary (and often costly) disputes.   Generally speaking, Rule 26(f), among other things, sets the deadline for the conference as soon as practicable and at least 21 days before the scheduling…
Continue Reading The Rule 26 Conference: Necessary Evil or Critical for Streamlined and Efficient Discovery?

Traditional document review can be one of the most variable and expensive aspects of the discovery process.  The good news is that there are innumerable analytic tools available to empower attorneys to work smarter, whereby reducing discovery costs and allowing attorneys to focus sooner on the data most relevant to the litigation.   And, while various vendors have “proprietary” tools with…
Continue Reading What Can A Litigator Do When There are Hundreds of Thousands of Documents to Review in a Short Period of Time, and a Strict Litigation Budget is in Place?

In this single-plaintiff employment discrimination case (Bailey v. Brookdale Univ. Hosp., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93093 (E.D.N.Y. June 16, 2017)), counsel for the parties purportedly met and conferred as directed by the Court and, thereafter, entered into an ESI agreement (“Agreement”).  The Agreement was presented to the Court and represented to be the product of mutual negotiation. …
Continue Reading Because the Court Concluded Plaintiff’s Counsel Failed to Engage in Meaningful Meet and Confer, Court Orders Counsel (not the Plaintiff) to Bear the Costs of Production

Armstrong Pump, Inc. v. Hartman, No. 10-CV-446S, 2016 WL 7208753 (W.D.N.Y. Dec. 13, 2016)

In this case, pending before the Court was a motion by Armstrong Pump Inc. (“Armstrong”) to compel formal production of certain documents that defendant Optimum Energy LLC (“Optimum”) considered the functional equivalent of its proprietary source code.  This “formal production” Armstrong sought to compel consisted of…

Continue Reading The Western District Declines to Compel Additional Discovery