Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The. court. in. this. case. ruled. the. defendants. were. guilty.
of.incomplete.discovery,.deliberate.misrepresentations.to.the.
court,. and. multiple. failures. to. abide. by. court. orders.. They.
were.slapped.with.over.one.million.dollars.in.monetary.sanc-
tions.that.they.were.ordered.to.pay.to.the.plaintiffs.to.cover.
all.the.attorney.fees.the.plaintiffs.had.paid.due.to.the.defen-
dant's.intransigence..Ouch.
1.2.3.14. .Pippins.v..KPMG.LLP.(S.D.N.Y..
10/7/11)—How.Much.Data.Do.
You.Really.Have.to.Keep
The. defendant. in. this. case,. KPMG,. preserved. over. 2,500.
hard. drives. when. it. realized. that. there. would. be. a. case..
KPMG.asked.the.court.to.allow.it.to.destroy.some.of.those.
drives.saying.it.was.too.great.a.burden.to.have.to.preserve.so.
much.data.
The. court. denied. their. request. because. they. failed. to.
establish. that. the. data. contained. on. those. drives. were. not.
relevant.to.the.case.or.that.they.had.evidence.that.could.be.
produced.from.another.source.(the.evidence.on.them.was.not.
“duplicative”).
The. judge. decided. that. it. would. be. prudent. to. retain. all.
possibly. relevant. materials,. thus. establishing. a. hard. lesson.
for.some:.you.may.be.required.to.preserve.and.manage.huge.
amounts.of.electronic.evidence.in.this.new.world.of.exponen-
tially.growing.capacities.for.storage.of.data.
1.2.3.15. .Chen.v..Dougherty.(W.D..
WA..7/7/09)—Attorney.Gets.
a.Slap.for.Incompetence
Here.is.a.sad.example.of.how.a.court.can.react.to.poor.prac-
tices.by.attorneys..In.this.case,.the.plaintiff.prevailed.in.the.
trial.and.asked.the.courts.to.award.them.attorney.fees..As.is.
usual.in.such.a.request,.they.stipulated.their.hourly.rate.and.
the.number.of.hours.they.spent.on.the.case.
