In an action concerning environmental cleanup responsibilities, the plaintiff [Consolidated] contended that the defendant’s designation of only four employees to maintain a litigation hold was inadequate.
Considering the lack of precedent within the Fifth Circuit as to standards for preservation of electronic evidence and sanctions for spoliation of electronic evidence, the Court held that plaintiff would be entitled to the sanction of adverse inferences for defendants’ failure to preserve evidence only if defendants were shown to have destroyed relevant evidence intentionally and in bad faith (this is the Zubulake standard) and that there was not sufficient evidence of defendants’ bad faith to warrant adverse inference sanctions.
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