e-Lessons Learned

Despite feeling sorry for the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (“OFHEO”) the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the district court’s finding of contempt against OFHEO.

Background:

In 2003, OFHEO completed an investigation of Fannie Mae. Pursuant to this investigation, multiple private civil actions against Fannie Mae and senior executives of the company have resulted. In the summer of 2006, former CFO J. Timothy Howard and former chairman and CEO Franklin Raines subpoenaed over thirty categories of documents from OFHEO as a non-party to the litigation. Arguing that these documents should have been sought pursuant to its disclosure regulations, OFHEO moved to have the subpoenas quashed. Continue reading »

Law school is an exciting (albeit stressful) time for a lot of individuals. One of the first things you notice is that you will be learning all these new legal concepts that you think you’ll be able to apply in you daily life. You sign a lease – and you think of Contracts and Property classes. You see a car accident happen – and you think of Torts. You see an opportunity to create an evidence to substantiate a false claim against a company – and you think of Civil Procedure and Evidence. Wait, come again?

Apparently, that’s last one is what one student at Chicago-Kent Law School thought while she was enrolled there. Continue reading »

When last we left our wily defendants, Gary Reynolds and Usenet.com had just been sanctioned for spoliation of evidence requested by the plaintiffs on numerous occasions. As an explanation for their failure to produce the evidence, Gary Reynolds had argued, in part, that relevant data had “expired off the system through normal system operational attrition.” That is, according to Reynolds, the destruction of data pertinent to their case was not a willful attempt to prevent the plaintiffs from obtaining the data. It was nothing more than the inevitable consequence of the limited storage space on his company’s computers. Continue reading »

In their neverending quest to alienate every single music listener on the face of the earth, Arista Records and several other recording industry heavyweights filed an action against Usenet.com and its operator, Gary Reynolds, for copyright infringement. As a commercial Usenet provider, Usenet.com allowed its subscribers to upload content to its servers by posting it one of its newsgroups and to download content posted in the newsgroups by other subscribers. In so doing, the plaintiffs claimed Reynolds had stored, and continued to store, vast amounts of digital music files on his Usenet.com servers for distribution in violation of the plaintiffs’ copyrights.

Upon filing its complaint, the plaintiffs requested that Reynolds produce all data on the Usenet.com servers concerning digital music files (“Music Files”) and requests by his subscribers to download and upload Music Files through his service (“Usage Data”). Instead, the plaintiffs claimed, Reynolds took affirmative steps to destroy large quantities of Music Files and Usage Data on his servers. Because Reynolds failed to provide any useful data requested by the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs filed a motion to sanction the defendants for despoiling evidence.

Continue reading »

When faced with an expedited discovery order from the court, always be certain as to what the deadline is and what information is to be produced by that deadline, as well as the procedures for obtaining the desired information. When the court grants a plaintiff’s motion for expedited discovery, the word “expedited” should be sufficiently clear as to put the defense on notice that they cannot continue to drag their feet. When the discovery deadline arrives, the court will not feel compelled to protect privileged material from the eyes of the opposing party based solely on the notion that there was confusion between the parties about what the court had ordered. Obviously, such confusion should be rectified prior to the deadline.

This case dealt with the Plaintiff’s seeking of two different types of e-discovery to be produced by the Defendants- (1) a keyword search of KW servers, and (2) the imaging of KW’s portable computers. Continue reading »

Since the beginning of his presidential campaign, President Obama has managed to use technology successfully, especially social media sites, by connect to young adults in a way that no other candidate has. Ever since his victory, President Obama continues to make technology a top priority, using it to increase government transparency, and most recently to reach out to the public in a more immediate and personal way. Two main examples of President Obama’s Administration making effective use of the power of the internet, include the launch of the website “Reality Check” and the CDC’s use of social media sites.

Continue reading »

Historically, recessions have led to an increase in litigation; but not this time. In fact, according to the National Law Journal the amount of litigation during these trying economic times has either flat lined or actually declined.

The reported reason for this unusual trend: General Counsels’ unwillingness to spend money on litigation, especially as the cost of electronic discovery is on the rise.

For more information be sure to check out the full article on the ABA Journal webpage.