In Jim Hawk Truck-Trailers of Sioux Falls, Inc. v Crossroads Trailer Sales & Service, Inc., et al., Judge Schreier provides a useful roadmap for navigating electronically stored information (ESI) when deciding Defendant’s motion to compel, among other things, the production of documents responsive to seven ESI search terms.
Background
In March 2020, Jim Hawk…
A 2022 case out of the Southern District of New York discussed the affirmative discovery obligations imposed upon parties under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26 and 34 when conducting electronically stored information (ESI) searches and determining the identities of custodians and locations of relevant documents or information. Specifically, the court observed that any agreement…
Recent legal and eDiscovery news has focused on “Slack.” And yet, despite the increasing publicity Slack has received, some remain unfamiliar with Slack – the leading channel-based messaging platform. Therefore, today’s post is meant to introduce readers to Slack and offer insights into preserving Slack data.
What is Slack?
At its most basic level, Slack…
A company striving to comply with state and federal regulations, as well as outstanding litigation holds, should establish policies and protocols related to the who/what/when/how of archiving business-related text messages. This blog post contains compliance strategies companies may wish to consider regarding such messages.
“Who.” All directors, officers, and employees should be advised of the…
Text messages have been at the forefront of national news. Indeed, the controversial failure by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to preserve text messages related to the events of Jan. 6 requested by Congressional subpoena[1] made text messages a topic of many dinner conversations.
Statutory and regulatory provisions may trigger a company’s duty…
In an action alleging breach of a commercial equipment lease agreement (Interpool, Inc., v JJS Transportation & Distribution Co., Inc.), the District Court for the Eastern District of New York was called upon to address Defendant’s ongoing discovery failures. Specifically, Defendant – for more than three months – failed to produce documents responsive…
In November 2022, the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility of the American Bar Association (ABA) published a formal opinion advising attorneys to refrain generally from including clients on emails and texts sent to opposing counsel. At the same time, the Committee noted that responding to group communications, that included opposing counsel and his/her…
Modern day litigation involves an ever-increasing volume of data. In turn, the ubiquitous nature of data has caused significant financial strains on legal teams. Because of the financial concerns attendant to eDiscovery, it is imperative that today’s legal teams are conversant in defensible strategies to control legal costs without compromising the ability to understand their…
In an earlier post, we discussed how District Court Judge Iain Johnston noted that “at times, ESI discovery can be complex,” but the “same basic discovery principles that worked for the Flintstones still work for the Jetsons.” Indeed, ESI discovery, just like its paper predecessor, involves five fundamental steps: (1) identification, (2) preservation, (3)…
For anyone with a few hours to spare, I highly recommend reading the various decisions authored by District Court Judge Iain Johnston of the Northern District of Illinois relating to discovery failures in the DR Distributors case. DR Distributors, LLC v. Century 21 Smoking, Inc., 513 F. Supp.3d 839 (ND Ill., 2021). Indeed, the case…
