In Advanced Cable Ties, Inc. v. Hewes, 2008 Mass. Super. Lexis 350 (Sup. Ct. Mass. Oct. 7, 2008), the court, underscoring plaintiff's failure to demonstrate the relevance of its requests, denied plaintiff's motion seeking the production of defendant Hewes' personal emails and for the inspection of his personal computers.

In Arteria Property PTY LTD. v. Universal Funding VTO, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77199 (D. N.J. Oct. 1, 2008)(UNPUBLISHED), the court granted plaintiff’s motion for spoliation sanctions and recommended that two adverse inference instructions be read to the jury.

In Hoover v. Florida Hydro, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87839 (E.D. Louis. Oct. 1, 2008), the court denied plaintiff's motion to quash defendant's third party subpoenas.  Instead, the court ordered the parties to enter into a discovery protocol outlining the search methodology relating to the third party storage media.  The court also ordered reimbursement of one of the third party witnesses to cover costs incurred with compliance.

In Pandora Jewelry, LLC v. Chamilia LLC, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79232 (D. Md Sept. 30, 2008), the court awarded monetary sanctions against defendant for its deliberate stonewalling and foot dragging related to producing discoverable information.  However, the court declined to impose dispositive sanctions.

In Brooks v. Motsenbocker Advanced Developments, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76230 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 29, 2008), the court granted plaintiff’s motion for leave to take the additional deposition of defendant’s person with knowledge of the computer systems.

On September 27, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed Assembly Bill 926 which contained e-discovery amendments similar to the  2006 e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

In Shirk v. Fifth Third Bancorp, 2008 U.S. LEXIS 85793 (S.D. Ohio Sept. 26, 2008), the court held the defendant must restore and produce 72 newly-found backup tapes pursuant to the court's previous order directing the defendant to produce responsive emails from all backup tapes from the 2001-2002 time period.

In Dong Ah Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. v. Glasforms, Inc., 2008 WL 4298331 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 19, 2008), the court issued an interim order seeking more information before ruling on defendant and a third party plaintiff's motion for terminating sanctions against a third party defendant for spoliation and destruction of documents.

In Kipperman v. Onex Corporation, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71629 (N.D. Ga. Sept. 19, 2008), the court revisited its prior ruling wherein it ordered defendants to produce email from two electronic backup tapes selected by plaintiff.  Plaintiff selected the tapes and also provided search terms.  The court had also ordered defendants to search all email mailboxes on both of the tapes utilizing search terms provided by plaintiff.  The court suggested plaintiff be more "artful" with its search terms and utilize a list of the people, provided by defendants, to review whether all mailboxes needed to be searched.  The court also invited defendants to participate in the determination of the search terms, but defendants did not provide search terms nor seek to narrow the terms suggested by plaintiff.

On September 19, 2008, President Bush signed Senate Bill S. 2450 which amends the Federal Rules of Evidence to address inadvertent waiver of the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine.  The bill is codified in FRE Rule 502 and provides, in part,  that the inadvertent disclosure of privileged materials does not operate as a waiver of those materials if the holder of the privilege or protection took reasonable steps to prevent disclosure, or if the holder took reasonable steps to rectify the error, including (if applicable) following Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5)(B). The law applies to all pending cases and to previously-filed cases, to the extent just and practicable.