In Square D Co. v. Scott Elec. Co., No. 06-00459, 2008 WL 2779067 (W.D. Pa. July 15, 2008), the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania addressed concerns about the execution of a forensic inspection of defendant Globe Electric Supply Co.’s computer system, which the court had repeatedly ordered.  The court concluded that defendant must comply with the court’s previous orders by allowing the forensic examination to be conducted, emphasizing that defendant’s continued disobedience with the court’s prior rulings mandating the forensic examination nearly resulted in a default judgment.

Viacom Intern. Inc. v. YouTube Inc., Nos. 07 Civ. 2103(LLS), 07 Civ. 3582(LLS), 2008 WL 2627388 (S.D.N.Y. July 2, 2008), is a lawsuit brought by Plaintiff Viacom for alleged copyright infringement by Defendant YouTube.  In responding to Plaintiff Viacom's motion to compel production of information from a database storing information about the viewing habits of users of Defendant YouTube's website, the district court judge concluded that Viacom should be provided with all data from the YouTube's Logging database that stores each time a video has been viewed, what time, and by which user.

In O’Neill v. The City of Shoreline, 187 P.3d 822 (Wash.App. Div. 1, July 21, 2008), the court was asked to determine whether the metadata in the electronic version of an email is subject to disclosure under the Washington Public Records Act (“PRA”). Plaintiff filed litigation claiming the defendant, City of Shoreline, and its Deputy Mayor violated PRA in responding to plaintiff’s request for public records.  The records related to a Shoreline City Council meeting where the Deputy Mayor stated that she had received an e-mail that related to a pending zoning matter.  Plaintiff demanded a copy of the email.  When plaintiff received a copy of the email several days later, the header information had been removed.  Plaintiff sought the electronic version of the email along with its associated metadata.

L.H. v. Schwarzenegger, 2008 WL 2073958 (E.D. Cal. 2008), is a class action lawsuit filed by juvenile parolees who allege the parole revocation process in California violates due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.  In several motions to compel discovery, the plaintiff juvenile parolees argued the defendants delayed production of documents to the detriment of their case.  As a result, the plaintiffs sought sanctions for defendants' failure to produce all the documents previously ordered by the court, which included databases and logs.

In the latest of several Peskoff v. Faber decisions (No. 04-526, 2008 WL 269506 (D.D.C. 2008)), Magistrate Judge John Facciola ordered the responding party to pay the cost of a forensic examination to recover electronically stored information ("ESI").  Judge Facciola previously addressed the sufficiency of a search done by the responding party for emails and other ESI in response to discovery requests, determining that it was appropriate to ascertain the costs of forensic testing of the computers and server at issue to see if a forensic search was justified.  After the discovery was deemed appropriate, bids were obtained reflecting the costs of the forensic search.  The parties could not agree on who would absorb the costs, so Judge  Facciola stepped in to resolve which party would be responsible for the costs of the forensic examination of the computer.

On Wednesday, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a police officer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of his text messages (See Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co., CV-03-00199, 9th Cir. June 18, 2008). Police officer Jeff Quon filed the action against his employer, City of Ontario, and its pager service provider, Arch Wireless, alleging a violation of his right to privacy and the Stored Communications Act.  The allegations arose from the City's request to Arch Wireless for the text message records related to officers who exceeded the police department's monthly text allotment of 25,000 characters per user.  The City's review of Quon's text messages revealed private and sexually-explicit conversations in violation of departmental policy.

In, Carter Bryant v. Mattel Inc., (Case No. 2:04CV9049 C.D. Cal.), the court decided that the jury would hear testimony that the defendant Carter Bryant used a software program entitled "Evidence Eliminator."   Bryant and his former employer MGA Entertainment are accused of infringing Mattel's copyright for its highly successful Barbie doll line.  Bryant is the creator of the popular Bratz dolls.  Mattel alleges that the concept for the doll came while Bryant worked for Mattel in 2000.  Bryant settled with Mattel, but MGA is contesting the allegations during an ongoing federal jury trial in Riverside, California.

In Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc., MJG-06-2662 (D. Md. May 29, 2008), the court ruled that defendants had waived the attorney-client privilege to 165 electronically stored documents inadvertently produced by defendants.  Defendants took a two tiered approach to reviewing potentially privileged documents. First, defendants used seventy (70) keyword search terms to conduct a privilege review of electronically stored information ("ESI").  A great majority of the documents (33 of 38 gigabytes) were not in a text-searchable format and, according to defendants, were not searchable by keyword. Second, defendants conducted a limited manual search on the remaining electronic files.

In U.S. v. Graham, 2008 WL 2098044 (S.D.Ohio May 16, 2008), the Court granted defendants' motion to dismiss a criminal indictment on the grounds that their rights under the Speedy Trial Act were violated due to the prosecutor's delay in producing electronic discovery.  The court noted that the case was particularly complex due to an "unprecedented volume of discovery turned over by the government - approximately 1.5 million documents, 300 videotapes, 500 recorded conversations, 90 hard drives of computers and 3,000 diskettes."

Ryley Carlock and Applewhite's Document Control Group is the newest member of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model Project.  EDRM was created to develop resources and best practices for e-discovery consumers and providers.  The group, formed in 2005, created an EDRM working model which outlines the essential processes and key steps involved in e-discovery.  EDRM is currently working on a standard platform to help e-discovery consumers and providers reduce the costs associated with electronic discovery.

"It is certainly a pleasure to welcome Ryley Carlock and Applewhite to EDRM,  We will particularly benefit from the participation of RCA's Document Control Group and their expertise in the area of electronic discovery," said George Socha, Director of the EDRM Project. In joining EDRM, the RCA joins 125 other organizations committed to more efficient and cost effective e-discovery. processes.