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E-Discovery Update: ESI Sanctions in Federal Court During 2016 (Well, through July)

August 31, 2016

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37 (along with others — Rules 1, 16, 26 and 34) was amended, effective December 1, 2015.

The amendment to Rule 37(e) was intended, in part, to ensure practitioners/litigants were fully aware of their preservation obligations, to ensure a uniformity of sanctions imposed upon parties and practitioners who failed to preserve discoverable electronically stored information (“ESI”), and to make adequate preservation a realistic goal, requiring that only “reasonable steps” be taken to preserve information. Indeed, the amendment requires a finding of intent or bad faith before sanctions can be imposed based upon spoliated information. (*)  Now, nearly a year after the enactment, it appears, from a review of the case law, that the amendment to Rule 37 (e) is effective in achieving its intended purposes.

Not only have federal court decisions involving sanctions declined since Rule 37’s amendment but, practitioners appear to be in better compliance with their preservation obligations since the amendment.

What Do the 2016 Statistics Look Like
Forty-nine federal decisions have cited Rule 37(e) since the Rule was amended. (**) Of these 49 decisions (20 of which did not apply Rule 37), thirteen decisions granted sanctions and sixteen decisions denied sanctions and/or reserved imposing sanctions. And so, sanctions were issued by courts approximately 40% of the time. Interestingly, the nature of the sanctions imposed spanned the gamut and included financial sanctions, adverse inferences, evidence preclusion, or a combination of sanctions. However, the most common sanction issued was an adverse inference.

Indeed, of the 13 decisions that granted sanctions:

• one decision entered a default judgment,
• three decisions precluded reliance upon certain evidence,
• seven decisions imposed monetary sanctions, and
• eight decisions imposed sanctions in the form of adverse inference sanctions. (***)

NB: some decisions imposed more than one type of sanction pursuant to 37(e).

Additionally, there was a variety of “lost” ESI at issue in the various decisions. Specifically,

• Twelve decisions involved unpreserved email data,
• Four decisions involved unpreserved text messages,
• Three decisions involved unpreserved portable device data,
• Two decisions involved unpreserved videos,
• Two decisions involved unpreserved phone call recordings,
• Two decisions involved unpreserved Internet browsing history,
• One decision involved unpreserved social media,
• Twelve decisions involved unpreserved non-email business data.

While 49 federal court decisions, in less than a year, have referenced Rule 37(e), that number is far fewer than in years past. In fact, according to research sources, the number of sanction decisions in 2011 totalled 150; and in 2012 that number was 120. Thus, it would appear that sanction decisions are on the decline. Moreover, given that there are 900 sitting federal judges, one could argue that sanctions have not lightly been sought since the Federal Rules amendments.

FOOTNOTES:

* Although Judge Scheindlin’s Zubulake opinions (which made it explicit that parties have a duty to preserve evidence when litigation is imminent) were authored many years ago, lawyers and parties nonetheless continued to fail to preserve evidence.

** Those 49 cases are:
CAT3, LLC v. Black Lineage, Inc., 2016 WL 154116 (S.D.N.Y. 2016)
O’Berry v. Turner, 2016 WL 1700403 (M.D. Ga., Valdosta Div. 2016)
Matthew Enterprise, Inc. v. Chrysler Group LLC, 2016 WL 2957133 (N.D. Cal. 2016)
GN Netcom, Inc. v. Plantronics, Inc., 2016 WL 3792833 (D. Del. 2016)
Learning Care Group, Inc. v. Armetta, 2016 WL 4191251 (D. Conn. 2016)
Best Payphones, Inc. v. City of New York, 2016 WL 792396 (E.D.N.Y. 2016)
Nuvasive, Inc. v. Madsen Medical, Inc., 2015 WL 305096 (S.D. Cal. 2016)
Thomas v. Butkiewicus, 2016 WL 1718368 (D. Conn 2016)
Ericksen v. Kaplan Higher Education, LLC, 2016 WL 695789 (D. Md. 2016)
BMG Rights Mgmt. (US) LLC v. Cox Comms., Inc., 2016 WL 4224964 (E.D. Va., Alexandria Div., 2016)
Brown Jordan Int’l, Inc. v. Carmicle, 2016 WL 815827 (S.D. Fl. 2016)
Core Laboratories LP v. Spectrum Tracer Services, L.L.C., 2016 WL 879324 (W.D. Okl. 2016)
Internmatch, Inc. v. Nxtbigthing, LLC, 2016 WL 491483 (N.D. Cal. 2016)
Living Color Enterprises, Inc. v. New Era Aquaculture, Ltd., 2016 WL 1105297 (S.D. Fl. 2016)
Marshall v. Dentfirst, P.C., 313 F.R.D. 691 (N.D. Ga., Atl. Div.)
Marten Transport, Ltd. v. Plattform Advertising, Inc., 2016 WL 492743 (D. Kansas 2016)
Saller v. QVC, Inc., 2016 WL 4063411 (E.D. Penn. 2016)
Martinez v. City of Chicago, 2016 WL 3538823 (N.D. Ill., Eastern Div. 2016)
Fiteq Inc. v. Venture Corporation, 2016 WL 1701794 (N.D. Cal. 2016)
Accurso v. Infra-Red Services, Inc., 2016 WL 930686 (E.D. Penn 2016)
United States v. Woodley, 2016 WL 1553583 (E.D. Mich., Southern Div. 2016)
Marquette Transportation Co. Gulf Island, LLC v. Chembulk Westport M/V, 2016 WL 930946 (E.D. La. 2016)
Orchestratehr, Inc. v. Trombetta, 2016 WL 1555784 (N.D. Tex., Dallas Div. 2016)
Thurmond v. Bowman, 2016 WL 1295957 (W.D.N.Y. 2016)
Mazzei v. Money Store, 2016 WL 3902256 (2d Cir. 2016)
Brackett v. Stellar Recovery, Inc., 2016 WL 1321415 (E.D. Tenn., Knoxville 2016)
Bagley v. Yale Univ., 2016 WL 3264141 (D. Conn 2016)
Thomley v. Bennett, 2016 WL 498436 (S.D. Ga., Waycross Div., 2016)
Granados v. Traffic Bar and Restaurant, Inc., 2015 WL 9582430 (S.D.N.Y. 2015)
Dr Distributors, LLC v. 21 Century Smoking, Inc., 2016 WL 4077107 (N.D. Ill., Western Div. 2016)
Henry Schein, Inc. v. Cook, 2016 WL 3212457 (N.D. Cal. 2016)
Bruner v. American Honda Motor Co., 2016 WL 2757401 (S.D. Al., Southern Div. 2016)
In re Bridge Construction Services of Florida, Inc., 2016 WL 2755877 (S.D.N.Y. 2016)
Markey v. Lapolla Industries, Inc., 2015 WL 5027522 (E.D.N.Y. 2015) (Tomlinson, U.S.M.J.)
Dao v. Liberty Life Assurance Co. of Boston, 2016 WL 796095 (N.D. Cal. 2016)
Zbylski v. Douglas County School District, 2015 WL 9583380 (D. Colo. 2016)
Redwind v. Western Union, LLC, 2016 WL 1732871 (D. Or. 2016)
Stinson v. City of New York, 2016 WL 54684 (S.D.N.Y. 2016)
Whitesell Corp. v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc., 2016 WL 1317673 (S.D. Ga., Augusta Div. 2016)
Vay v. Huston, 2016 WL 1408116 (W.D. Penn. 2016)
Hammad v. Dynamo Stadium, LLC, 2015 WL 6965215 (S.D. Tex., Houston Div. 2015)
Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Exeter Holdings, Ltd. v. Haltman, 2015 WL 5027899 (E.D.N.Y. 2015) (Tomlinson, U.S.M.J.)
United States v. Woodley, 2016 WL 2731186 (E.D. Mich., Southern Div.)
Grove City Veterinary Service, LLC v. Charter Practices Inter., LLC, 2015 WL 4937393 (D. Or. 2015)
United States v. Safeco Ins. Co. of America, 2016 WL 901608 (D. Idaho 2016)
Coale v. Metro-North Railroad Co., 2016 WL 1441790 (D. Conn. 2016)
Fleming v. Escort, Inc., 2015 WL 5611576 (D. Idaho 2015)
Kissing Camels Surgery Center, LLC v. Centura Health Corp., 2016 WL 277721 (D. Colo. 2016)
McIntosh v. United States, 2016 WL 1274585 (S.D.N.Y. 2016)

*** Of the 19 cases in which sanctions were not granted, the reasons for denying sanctions varied. Indeed, courts declined to impose sanctions because the party “took reasonable steps” to preserve data; party was not harmed by the fact the ESI was missing; there was insufficient evidence of bad faith; and the missing data was “restored through other methods.”