Authored By: Christopher D. Dize

Citation: Oxxford Info. Tech., Ltd. v. Novantas, LLC, 910 N.Y.S.2d 77 (N.Y. App. Div. 2010)

Employee/Employer Implicated: Clients and Attorneys

e-Lesson Learned: If an attorney agrees to return or destroy the other party’s confidential information at the close of litigation, the New York Appellate Division will hold him to it, even if it becomes “too costly” to follow through.

Tweet This: NY Appellate Division Rejects Modification of Confidentiality Order

When counsel for plaintiff Oxxford Information Technology entered into a confidentiality stipulation that all information exchanged during discovery would either be returned to the original party or destroyed, they never imagined that it would be so costly to get rid of the information. After the matter settled, however, Oxxford's counsel learned that they had "inadvertently backed up defendants' information onto numerous back-up tapes to their law firm's computer system." Ironically, it was Oxxford's counsel who had originally demanded the core business secrets that ended up on the tapes.