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Written by DocuTech
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Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:18 |
In a recent decision subtitled "Zubulake Revisited: Six Years Later," Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York granted sanctions against 13 plaintiffs—six for gross negligence and seven for negligence—in connection with their failure to preserve, collect, and produce electronic documents, in Pension Committee of the Univ. of Montreal Pension Plan, et al. v. Banc of America Securities, LLC, et al., 2010 WL 184312 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 15, 2010).
Judge Scheindlin built her conclusions upon principles she established in the six often-cited opinions she issued in the Zubulake litigation regarding discovery generally and electronic discovery in particular.
The case did not present any egregious examples of litigants purposefully destroying evidence. Rather, according to the court, "it is a case where plaintiffs failed to timely institute written litigation holds and engaged in careless and indifferent collection efforts after the duty to preserve arose."
The court determined that she would ultimately issue an adverse inference instruction to the jury. The court also imposed significant monetary sanctions on the negligent plaintiffs.
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