On February 24, 2017, the US District Court for the Northern District of California imposed sanction on a party failing to preserve electronically stored information (ESI) transferred in the sale of business. In this action for breach of duties under ERISA, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions for spoliation of evidence. An insurance company […]
On July 25, 2016, the Washington District Court –using its inherent power to sanction – fined Defendant’s attorney for failing to rely on new rules. According to the Court, Defendants “proceeded to misstate the law” in their reply brief on the motion to compel by citing case law “that analyzed the version of Federal Rule of […]
On July 12, 2016, the federal District Court in Delaware imposed $3,000,000 punitive sanction on Defendant due to its “high degree of fault, its bad-faith intent to deprive GN of responsive documents, and the prejudice it has caused to GN’s case — along with the difficulties it has created for GN in “getting to the […]
On September 22, 2015, the West Virginia Office of Disciplinary Counsel Legal Ethics issued a comprehensive opinion to provide the guidance for lawyers on the use of social media for both business and personal matters. West Virginia Office of Disciplinary Counsel Legal Ethics Opinion 2015-02 Lawyer Disciplinary Board – L.E.O. 2015-02 The Disciplinary Board provided […]
E-discovery is inseparable from the issue of ethics. Because lawyer duties and requirements permeate the realm of e-discovery, they invariably implicate lawyers’ ethical duties. This is illustrated by the fact that the most notorious e-discovery cases are ones where lawyers are heavily sanctioned – including referral to a state bar for disciplinary proceedings. This article […]
Read Part One II. Candor F.R.C.P. 26(g) has its own Rule-11-type signature provision for discovery requests, responses and objections. If the certification of truthfulness, completeness, and propriety in law and fact violates the rule “without substantial justification,” the court is required to impose “an appropriate sanction” on counsel, the represented party, or both. Additional requirements […]
In this personal injury case, the Eastern District Court of Louisiana issued a discovery order for the production of a deactivated Facebook account. These the facts: an employee sued his employer for an injury suffered on the job. However, the employer filed a request for production of the employee’s Facebook account claiming to have seen […]
Author discusses if/when a lawyer can tell a client to “clean up” social media accounts. Article refers to Crowe v. Marquette Transp. Co. Gulf-Inland, LLC, 2015 WL 254633 (E.D. La. Jan. 20, 2015). The full text is available at http://www.forbes.com…
The Pennsylvania Bar Association issued a formal opinion on attorneys’ use of social media. The opinion deals with the following issues: (1) whether attorneys may advise clients about the content of the clients’ social networking websites; (2) whether attorneys may connect with a client or former client on a social networking website; (3) whether attorneys […]
In the matter of Jared E. Stolz an attorney at law, Docket No. DRB 13-331 (2014) The ethics charges against Attorney arose out of his representation of a defendant in a lawsuit. Throughout the course of the litigation there was a great deal of animosity between counsel. In response to the opposing counsel’s inquiries and […]