Case Law & Authority

With the updates to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to include the handling of Electronically Stored Information, legal professionals can no longer begin an E-Discovery effort without first understanding the terrain. 

The courts have been handing out many headline making sanctions to firms that have made mis-judgments in their E-Discovery attempts over the past few years, and it is now more important than ever that litigators understand the proper procedures and expectations going into a new E-Discovery matter.

Below are some case citiations that every attorney, paralegal, and litigation support staff should be aware of.  This list is by no means comprehensive, but it is a good starting point:

Decisions That are “Must Reads”:

Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 217 F.R.D. 309 (Zubulake I)
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 2003 U.S. Dist.LEXIS 7940 (Zubulake II)
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 216 F.R.D. 280 (Zubulake III)
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 220 F.R.D. 212 (Zubulake IV)
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13574 (Zubulake V)
 (Note that there are 5 separate Zubulake decisions, all of which provide a well rounded outline on E-Discovery expectations and processes)

Coleman (Parent) Holdings, Inc., v. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. 2005 WL 679071 (Fla. Cir. Ct. Mar. 1, 2005)

Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, 125 S.Ct. 2129 (U.S. 2005)

In Dealing with Productions:

Zakre v. Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, 2004 US Dist. LEXIS 2257

Tulip Computers v. Dell Computer Corp., 52 Fed. R. Serv.3d (D. Del 2002)

In re Lorazepam and Clorazepate Antitrust Litig., 300 F. Supp. 2d 43, 46

In re Pemstar, Inc. Secs. Litig., Civ. No. 02-1821 (DFW/SRN) (D. Minn. Apr. 23, 2004)

In re Verisign, Inc. Sec. Litig., 2004 WL 2445243 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 10, 2004)

In Dealing with Preservation of Evidence:

Broccoli v. Echostar Communications Corp., 2005 WL 1863176 (D. Md. Aug. 4, 2005)

Antioch Co. v. Scrapbook Borders, Inc., 210 F.R.D. 645 (D. Minn. 2002)

Playboy Enterprises v. Welles, 60 F.Supp. 2d 1050 (S.D. Cal 1999)

Getty Props. Corp. v. Raceway Petroleum, Inc., 2005 WL 1412134 (D.N.J. June 14, 2005)

Dodge, Warren & Peters Insurance v. Riley, 105 Cal.App.4th 1414 (Feb. 5, 2003)

Rowe Entertainment Inc. v. William Morris, 205 F.R.D. 421 (SDNY 2002)

In Dealing with E-Discovery Costs:

Toshiba Am. Elec. Components, Inc. v. The Superior Court of Santa Clara County, 21 Cal. Rptr. 3d 532 (Cal. Ct.App. 2004)

Multitechnology Servs. v. Verizon Southwest, 2004 WL 1553480 (N.D. Tex. July 12, 2004)

Lipco Elec. Corp. v. ASG Consulting Corp., 2004 WL 1949062 (N.Y. Sup.Ct. Aug. 18, 2004)

Hagemeyer North American, Inc. v. Gateway Data Sciences Corp., 222 F.R.D. 594 (E.D. Wis. 2004)

OpenTV v. Liberate Technologies, 219 F.R.D. 474 (N.D.C.A 2003)