In Spieker, et. al.  v. Quest Cherokee, LLC, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62073 (D. Kan. July 21, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen M. Humphreys granted plaintiffs' renewed motion to compel the production of electronically stored information ("ESI") and rejected defendant's argument that ESI was not reasonably accessible due to undue cost or burden.

In Armor Screen Corp. v. Storm Catcher, Inc., et. al., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59927 (S.D. Fla. June 29, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne E. Vitunac awarded reasonable expenses incurred by plaintiff in opposing defendants' meritless motion to compel electronically stored information ("ESI") in a reasonably usable format.

In Textron Financial Corp. v. Eddy's Trailer Sales, Inc., et. al., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60065 (E.D.N.Y. July 10, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge A. Kathleen Tomlinson granted plaintiff's motion to compel the production of relevant electronically stored information ("ESI"), but capped the cost at $10,000.

In KCH Services, Inc. v. Vanaire, Inc., et. al., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62993 (W.D. Ky. July 21, 2009), U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer B. Coffman granted plaintiff's request for an adverse inference instruction where defendants intentionally deleted evidence and failed to implement a litigation hold.

In FSP Stallion 1, LLC, et. al. v. Luce, et. al., (2009 WL 2177107 (D. Nev. July 21, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy A. Leen granted plaintiffs' request for defendants to produce certain accounting information in its native format and further ordered defendants to produce electronically stored information ("ESI") with limited metadata fields.

In Ford Motor Co. v. United States of America, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62318 (E.D. Mich. July 21, 2009), United States Magistrate Judge Mona K. Majzoub granted plaintiff's motion to compel discovery requiring the IRS to verify its efforts to search for and retrieve responsive emails.

In Flying J., Inc. Tch LLC, et. al. v. Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, et. al., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55281 (D. Utah, June 25, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge David Nuffer granted defendant Comdata's motion to compel production of plaintiffs' transaction databases and further ordered plaintiffs to search emails using defendant Comdata's search terms.

On Monday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill No. 5, the California Electronic Discovery Act, into law.  California is one step closer to enacting specific e-discovery rulemaking.  For a copy of the Electronic Discovery Act, click here.

In Celanese Corp. v. Kellogg, Brown & Root, Inc., et. al., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53673 (S.D. Tx. June 25, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Wm. Smith denied defendant KBR's request for reimbursement of expenses related to converting native electronic files as a taxable cost.

In Kilpatrick v. Breg, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52723 (S.D. Fla. June 22, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea M. Simonton denied plaintiff's motion for reconsideration, but granted, in part, plaintiff's motion to compel and gave plaintiff the option to search defendant's backup tapes provided plaintiff pay the cost.