These Cases Rock
See “Rockin’ Out the E-Law.”
Here are some of the judges and the cases they handled that are shaping the rules of e-discovery:
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg
217 F.R.D. 309 (S.D.N.Y. 2004).
The seminal ruling on e-discovery, this simple job discrimination case turned into an epic discovery battle and made the legal profession realize e-discovery is a big deal.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm
Hopson v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
232 F.R.D. 228 (D. Md. 2005)
The case explores the issue of potential waiver of privilege.
Thompson v. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
219 F.R.D. 93 (D. Md. 2003)
The ruling addresses discovery of electronically stored information and the sanctions available for failing to preserve such evidence.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola
U.S. v. O’Keefe
Cr. No. 06-249 (D.D.C., Feb. 18, 2008)
A criminal case in which Facciola lays out a test for determining whether the techniques used in e-discovery are adequate.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Executive Office of the President
Civ. No. 07-1577 (D.D.C.)
Ongoing litigation over whether the White House can produce e-mails for litigation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge David Waxse
Williams v. Sprint/United Management
No. 03-2200-JWL (D. Kan., Sept. 11, 2007)
One of the first written opinions dealing with metadata, the invisible data from a document that includes who created it, what computers were used and when it was worked on.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis
Rowe Entertainment Inc. v. William Morris Agency Inc.
205 F.R.D. 421, 423 (S.D.N.Y. 2002)
The opinion dealt with technical issues of e-discovery, including the protection of privileged documents.
U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster
Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp.
No. 05-CV-1958-B (S.D. Cal., March 5, 2008)
Imposed sanctions on Qualcomm attorneys for failing to produce e-mails in court.
