I always suggest that attorneys ask for a 502(d) Order under Federal Rules of Evidence before production of ESI. A new case out of Texas demonstrates some of the many bad things that can happen if you do not. Bellamy v. Wal-Mart Stores, Texas, LLC, No. SA-18-CV-60-XR, 2024 WL 3936992 (W.D. Tex. Aug. 19, 2024). The opinion is from one of the leading e-discovery jurists in the country, Texas District Court 平行加速器app下载. Although he allowed the inadvertently produced documents to be clawed back, it was a close call. In the process Judge Rodriguez considered those documents and sanctioned defendants based on what he read. He struck defendant’s comparative negligence defense and awarded fees and costs. It could have been worse. The accidentally disclosed attorney emails suggested multiple rule violations and a disturbing lack of candor to the court.
This is a must read opinion, not only because of who wrote it, Judge Rodriguez, and the quality of his research and analysis, but also because of the facts of the case. There are many things we can learn from the mistakes highlighted in this opinion. Including the all important ethical values of attorney candor to the court and cooperation.
I will let the learned Judge Rodriguez’ own words in Bellamy explain this case, which was colored by the attorney conduct he uncovered.
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There have been several discovery disputes that have arisen in this case. The Magistrate Judge presided over the first round of disputes and eventually ordered that the Plaintiff’s [First] Motion for Sanctions be dismissed without prejudice to allow for the deposition of a Wal-Mart employee who may have been responsible for leaving the pallet unattended. The Magistrate Judge further ordered that Defendant supplement its disclosures and discovery responses, amend its objections, and provide Plaintiff with a privilege log as to any withheld documents.
This latest round of disputes centers on what happened next. In responding to the Magistrate Judge’s Order, a paralegal in counsel for Defendant’s office inadvertently produced documents that Defendant claims are privileged under the attorney-client privilege or work product. Plaintiff responds that some documents are not privileged. With regard to documents that are privileged, Plaintiff argues that these documents nonetheless demonstrate that Defendant’s counsel has acted in bad faith and engaged in discovery abuse.
Id. at pg. 1 of 7.
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In this case the privilege log was woefully deficient. Specifically, the Court is unable to ascertain the identities of various recipients of the emails in question.
Id. at pg 2 of 7.
The emails were all submitted to Judge Rodriguez for review in camera. The opinion makes clear that Judge Rodriguez did not think all of these emails were in fact privileged under case law, but plaintiff’s counsel had for some reason, not explained, conceded that they were.
But as stated above, because Plaintiff concedes that the documents are privileged, the Court will not disturb the concession that the documents are covered by the attorney-client privilege.
Id.
The elements of Rule 502(b) were met with this odd concession, so Judge Rodriguez had no choice but to order their return and prevent plaintiff from using the emails at trial, but Judge Rodriguez was not at all happy about the contents of the emails. This is where the hammer falls:
*3 Accordingly, pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 502(b) and Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5)(B), Defendant is entitled to “claw back” the documents it inadvertently produced. But that is not the end of this analysis. Although Plaintiff may not further use these documents in this case, preventing their use in analyzing the pending motion for sanctions would result in a perverse result, upending the rules of civil procedure and encouraging discovery abuse.
Id.
Judge Rodriguez starts by noting defense counsel became aware of key witnesses and failed to disclose them.
With regard to the above individuals, Defendant failed to list them in its Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1) initial disclosures and failed to timely list them in answers to interrogatories. It is apparent from a reading of the materials submitted either Defendant’s counsel was grossly negligent in fulfilling their discovery obligations or they realized they had an uncooperative manager who was refusing to assist in their investigation, and they did not want to disclose the identities of potentially “bad” witnesses. Counsel for Defendant attempts to shift some of this blame by stating that Plaintiff was already aware of the manager and garden center employee because of her prior employment with Wal-Mart. This shifting is unpersuasive. Defendant’s counsel had obligations to provide this information and it unreasonably and untimely did not.
Id. at pg. 3 of 7.
The in camera privileged emails Judge Rodriguez read also showed that a video of the slip and fall once existed. Yikes. That is a real problem.
Counsel for Defendant never disclosed to Plaintiff’s counsel that at one time video may have existed that was now lost. Rather, counsel merely kept repeating that video does not exist.
ins平行加速器下载
That was way too cute. Disclosure to opposing counsel and the court was expected by Judge Rodriguez.
If that were not all bad enough, the emails revealed another hidden fact:
Finally, Plaintiff’s counsel discovered in the inadvertently produced emails that: (9) Defendant hired an
investigator to conduct a full social media/background check on the Plaintiff on June 20, 2018; and (10)
outside counsel for Defendant notified “Travis Rodmon-Legal” that surveillance had been completed on the Plaintiff and “it is debatable if the footage will be beneficial…. The investigator informs me that she moves very slowly, gingerly and hobbles a bit.”*4 Counsel for Defendant never disclosed that it possessed video of the Plaintiff. Defendant was under an obligation to disclose any such video as a request for production had been made to that effect. Likewise, Wal-Mart had obtained numerous statements from the Plaintiff prior to her obtaining representation. These statements were requested in requests for production, but not timely disclosed. Counsel for Defendant attributes this failure to the fact that one attorney working this file left the firm and the file was reassigned and the new attorney was unaware of the video’s existence. Although this suggests no “bad faith”, at the time Wal-Mart sent its responses to requests for production and stated that it had no video of the Plaintiff it violated Rule 26(g).
Plaintiff requests that Defendant be sanctioned for failing to disclose that store surveillance video at one point existed and at some point became “lost.” Plaintiff also seeks sanctions because the Wal-Mart manager testified at her deposition that she took multiple photos (including of the pallet) and these photos have never been produced. Likewise, the manager testified that she obtained a statement from the employee who left the pallet unattended and that statement has never been produced. Plaintiff also seeks sanctions because Wal-Mart did not preserve the pallet in question. Finally, Plaintiff requests sanctions generally for Defendant’s failure to honor its discovery obligations. Plaintiff also requests that the Court provide an adverse inference instruction to the jury regarding the missing information. Plaintiff seeks these various sanctions citing generally to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37 and the court’s “inherent
authority.”
Id.
Judge Rodriguez examines the law on sanctions and then considers the ethical Duty of Candor to the Court (Rule 3.3, Model Rules of Professional Conduct) the Duty of Cooperation and Rule 1, FRCP (just, speedy and inexpensive).
D. Duty of Candor, Cooperation and FED. R. CIV. P. 1
Counsel for Defendant wisely opened its Response brief with the following: “Defendant’s counsel
acknowledges and accepts it made mistakes during the discovery of this matter. It accepts that consequences may come from the Court as it considers Plaintiff’s Motions before the Court.”It is apparent that at the time of the accident, Defendant considered this a low-value or nuisance case. It did not contemplate the severity of the Plaintiff’s injuries and medical treatment. But once Plaintiff placed Defendant on notice that she was going to pursue litigation, reasonable and proportionate preservation obligations were required to be met. Likewise, defense counsel may be on billing constraints, but discovery obligations and adherence to the rules of civil procedure must be met.
*7 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 1 and 26(f) contemplate that the parties meet in good faith to discuss the case and facilitate resolution of the case and discovery issues because the parties have an obligation “to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.” Rather than complying with the rules, defense counsel delayed the production of adverse material and the identity of witnesses and the extent of the inappropriate acts only fully became revealed after an inadvertent production of emails was made (after intervention by the Magistrate Judge).
ins平行加速器下载at pgs. 5-6 of 7.
Judge Rodriguez then concludes:
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Conclusion
Defendant’s Motion to Abate or Strike Plaintiff’s Second Motion for Sanctions (docket no. 49) is DENIED, but as stated above Plaintiff may not use the inadvertently produced documents for any other purpose and counsel must return any documents still in Plaintiff’s possession, if any, to Defendant. Plaintiffs’ Motion for Sanctions (docket no. 50) is GRANTED as stated above. Defendant may not assert any comparative negligence defense in this case, including arguing that the danger was open and obvious.
Id. at pgs. 6-7 of 7.
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Posted by Ralph Losey 
Every lawyer who thinks e-discovery is not important, that you can just delegate it to a vendor, should read Abbott Laboratories, et al. v. Adelphia Supply USA, et al., No. 15 CV 5826 (CBA) (LB) (E.D.N.Y. May 2, 2024). This opinion in a trademark case in Brooklyn District Court (shown here) emphasizes, once again, that e-discovery can be outcome-determinative. If you mess it up, you can doom your case. If a lawyer wants to litigate today, they either have to spend the substantial time it takes to learn the many intricacies of e-discovery, or associate with a specialist who does. The Abbott Labs case shows how easily a law suit can be won or lost on e-discovery alone. Here the numbers did not add up, key custodians were omitted and guessed keywords were used, keywords so bad that opposing counsel called them designed to fail. The defendants reacted by firing their lawyers and blaming everything on them, but the court did not buy it. Instead, discovery fraud was found and judgment was entered for the plaintiff.
Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom (shown right) begins the Opinion by noting that the plaintiff’s motion for case ending sanctions “… presents a cautionary tale about how not to conduct discovery in federal court.” The issues started when defendant made its first electronic document production. The Electronically Stored Information was all produced in paper, as Judge Bloom explained “in hard copy, scanning them all together, and producing them as a single, 1941-page PDF file.” Opinion pg. 3. This is not what the plaintiff Abbott Labs wanted. After Abbott sought relief from the court the defendants on March 24, 2017 were ordered to “produce an electronic copy of the 2014 emails (1,941 pages)” including metadata. Defendant then “electronically produced 4,074 pages of responsive documents on April 5, 2017.” Note how the page count went from 1,942 to 4,074. There was no explanation of this page count discrepancy, the first of many, but the evidence helped Abbott justify a new product counterfeiting action (Abbott II) where the court ordered a seizure of defendant’s email server. That’s were the fun started. As Judge Bloom put it:
he e-discovery searches you run are important. The “mistakes” made here led to a default judgment. That is the way it is in federal court today. If you think otherwise, that e-discovery is not that important, that you can just hire a vendor and throw stupid keywords at it, then your head is dangerously stuck in the sand. Look around. There are many cases like Abbott Laboratories, et al. v. Adelphia Supply USA.
E-Discovery is about evidence. About truth. You cannot play games. Either take it seriously and do it right, do it ethically, do it competently; or go home and get out. Retire already. Discovery gamesmanship and lawyer bumbling are no longer tolerated in federal court. The legal profession has no room for dinosaurs like that.
Judge Lois Bloom went on to explain that, even if defendant’s story of innocent reliance on it lawyers was true:
Attorneys of record sign responses under Rule 26(g) to requests for production, not the client. That is because the rules require them to control the discovery efforts of their clients. That means the attorney’s neck is on the line. Rule 26(g) does not allow you to just take a client’s word for it. Verify. Supervise. The numbers should add up. The search terms, if used, should be designed and tested to succeed, not fail. This is your response, not the client’s. You determine the search method, in consultation with the client for sure, but not by “just following orders.” You must see everything, not nothing. If you see no email from key custodians, dig deeper and ask why. Do this at the beginning of the case. Get vendor help before you start discovery, not after you fail. Apparently the original defense attorneys here did just what they were asked, they went along with the client. Look where it got them. Fired and deposed. Default judgment entered. Cautionary tale indeed.
United States Magistrate Judge Tony N. Leung sanctioned the record company defendant and its two top executives in a suit over the posthumous release of Prince’s “Deliverance” album. They were sanctioned because the plaintiff, the Prince Estate via Paisley Park, proved that the defendant executives intentionally destroyed text messages about the album. They denied bad intent and claim they did what they thought the law required, save the emails and office computer data. Defendants claimed they provided discovery from other sources of ESI, including their work computers, cooperated with a forensic data firm to ensure Plaintiffs obtained everything they sought, but, they further argue that Plaintiffs never asked to inspect their cell phones during this process. They claimed they did not know they also had to preserve their text messages.
Judge Tony Leung was not laughing, purple rain or not. He did not believe defendants’ good faith intent argument. He was no more impressed by their “times are changing,” “平行加速器app下载 argument than Prince was in ins平行加速器下载. In today’s world preservation of email is not enough. If text messages are how people did business, which was the case in Paisley Park, then these messages must also be preserved. As Judge Leung put it:
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. He was probably our greatest President. Putting aside the tears honest Abe must now be shedding over his political party, it is good to remember Lincoln as an exemplar of a U.S. lawyer. All lawyers would benefit from emulating aspects of his Nineteenth Century legal practice and Twenty First Century thoughts on technology. He was honest, diligent, a deep thinker and ethical. Very ethical. He did not need to be lectured on Cooperation and Rule 1. He also did not need to be told to embrace technology, not hide from it. In fact, he was a prominent Tech-Lawyer of his day, well known for his speaking abilities on the subject. Near the end of his legal career Abe was busy pushing technology and his vision of the future. Sound familiar dear readers? It should. Most of you are like that.
Ralph Losey is a practicing attorney and shareholder in a national law firm with 50+ offices and over 800 lawyers where he is in charge of Electronic Discovery. All opinions expressed here are his own, and not those of his firm or clients. No legal advice is provided on this web and should not be construed as such.
Ralph has long been a leader of the world's tech lawyers. He has presented at hundreds of legal conferences and CLEs around the world. Ralph has written over two million words on e-discovery and tech-law subjects, including seven books. He is also the founder of Electronic Discovery Best Practices, and e-Discovery Team Training, an online education program that arose out of his five years as an adjunct professor teaching e-Discovery and Evidence at the UF School of Law. Ralph is also publisher and principle author of this blog and many other instructional websites. 
Ralph is a specialist who has limited his legal practice to electronic discovery and tech law since 2006. He has a special interest in software and the search and review of electronic evidence using artificial intelligence, and also in general AI Ethics. issues. Ralph was the only private lawyer to participate in the 2015 and 2016 TREC Recall Track of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and prior to that competed successfully in the EDI Oracle research. 
