Sullivan & Cromwell Sues Electronic Discovery Firm

Sullivan & Cromwell has filed a lawsuit against an electronic discovery firm it hired for a major case that contends the company blew deadlines and made errors in document production.

The suit against Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc. says the law firm had to divert staff and resources to deal with the "untimely and inaccurate" work, the New York Law Journal reports. Sullivan & Cromwell is seeking a declaration that it does not owe $710,000 in unpaid bills to EED.

The suit contends the vendor produced documents that had been flagged as unresponsive and sometimes failed to correct the mistakes, the story says. The complaint, filed in New York federal court, also says the company did not provide an accurate list of the Bates numbers used to identify documents and did not keep the law firm informed of delays.

Electronic Evidence Discovery said in a statement that it was "confident that this collections issue will be resolved appropriately and EED will prevail."

While the suit is thought to be the first of its kind, it does not surprise experts. Electronic discovery is becoming increasingly important in high-stakes litigation, where failure to produce crucial documents can lead to big sanctions. Steven Bennett of Jones Day in New York told the NYLJ that the case could spur electronic discovery companies to become more picky in accepting cases or to obtain malpractice insurance.

"These are companies that are performing services far beyond the norm of litigation support," he said. "It's easy to mess things up."