duty to preserve
No reasonable anticipation of litigation given longstanding relationship and lack of communication about incident
In this breach of contract case, the court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions, finding that the defendants were under no duty to preserve evidence…
Court declines sanctions where defendant deleted emails a decade before lawsuit
In this product liability case, the court denied spoliation sanctions because the defendant deleted ESI a decade before the plaintiffs filed suit.
‘So sue me’ not enough to trigger duty to preserve evidence
In this breach of contract case, the court denied sanctions, finding that the plaintiffs destroyed evidence before any duty to preserve attached.
Defendant’s ‘plausible, good-faith explanation’ of lost evidence proves prejudice
The court imposed monetary sanctions under FRCP 37 for the plaintiff’s unintentional spoliation of text messages, which prejudiced the defendant.
Litigant’s attempt to ‘take advantage of’ evidence it spoliated proves its bad faith
Decker v. Target Corp. In this personal injury claim, the court granted harsh sanctions for the defendant’s bad faith spoliation of evidence.This case began with…
Reasonable Inquiry Explains Lack Of Responsive Discovery
In this negligence case arising from a car accident, the plaintiff moved to compel the production of daily driving reports.
Facing ‘unclear’ evidence, court concludes that overwritten ESI was never downloaded
The court denied sanctions for spoliation, finding that the disputed ESI had been automatically overwritten before the duty to preserve attached.
The plaintiff’s 16-minute call to attorneys didn’t establish a duty to preserve
The court denied sanctions where the plaintiff “accidentally” deleted emails, rejecting as “speculative” the claim that she had a duty to preserve.
What Is a Trigger Event?
A trigger event occurs when a party can reasonably anticipate litigation; it initiates the duty to preserve potentially relevant evidence.
Reasonable Steps to Avoid Loss of Information
A number of federal decisions have addressed whether ‘‘steps’’ taken by parties which have ‘‘lost’’ electronically stored information (ESI) had been ‘‘reasonable’’ ones under Federal…
You Can’t Spoliate Evidence That You Don’t Possess
Case summary - HCC Ins. Holdings, Inc. v. Flowers - Court denied sanctions because the plaintiff failed to prove the defendant had confidential info
A Mistaken Belief Does Not Warrant Sanctions for the Failure to Preserve
The court takes a bifurcated approach to analyzing the loss of ESI under amended FRCP 37(e), finding that sanctions were appropriate.