Case Blurb: Asher Assocs LLC; Reason for Existence of Duty to Preserve

To ensure that the discovery permitted by Rule 26(b)(1) does not become a futile exercise, putative litigants have a duty to preserve documents or materials that may be relevant to potential future litigation.

Asher Assocs., LLC v. Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40136 at *15-16 (D. Colo. May 12, 2009)(citing Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, LLC, 220 F.R.D. 212, 216 (S.D.N.Y. 2003)).

Case Blurb: Asher Assocs LLC, Purpose of Discovery Procedures

Discovery procedures set forth in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure seek to further the interests of justice by minimizing surprise at trial and ensuring wide-ranging discovery of information. To that end, Rule 26(b) permits discovery “regarding any matter . . . that is relevant to the claim or defense of any party” or discovery of any information that “appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.”

Asher Assocs., LLC v. Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40136 at *15 (D. Colo. May 12, 2009)(internal citations removed).

Case Blurb: Ahner; Attorney-Client Privilege Basics

Once the proponent has properly asserted the privilege claim and the requisite information about the allegedly privileged document provided to the opponent, the proponent must substantiate all actual assertions about the claim. This is usually done through supporting affidavits from individuals with personal knowledge of the relevant facts, exhibits attached to the motion and briefs, discovery responses, pleadings and other undisputed facts…. To the extent that evidentiary support for the factual basis of the privilege is not forthcoming, the claim is little more than a bald, conclusory, or ipse dixit assertion. The court will deny such an assertion because it forecloses meaningful independent inquiry by the finder of facts (the judge) into the validity of the claim…. Although an attorney’s word may be “taken on its face,” a privilege claim is not self-executing. It requires more proof than a conclusion by the party asserting the claim (or his attorney) that it is justified.
Thus, any objection based on Rule 26(b)(3) may ultimately be sustained only if the objection is both properly asserted and the facts supporting it are established by evidence. [Movant] bears the burden of proof on this claim.
[...]
The mere assertion of a lawyer in oral argument that materials were prepared in anticipation of litigation is not evidence sufficient to bear the burden.

Auto Club Family Ins. Co. v. Ahner, 2007 WL 2480322 at *4 (E.D.La. Aug. 29, 2007) (citing P. Rice, Attorney-Client Privilege in the United States § 11:10 at 977-80 (Lawyers Cooperative 1993))(emphases in the original)

Case Blurb: Ahner; Fact that Producing Party is Testifying Witness Magnifies Need for Disclosure During Discovery

[Producing Party] argues…Rule 26(b)(4) precludes the [Requesting Party] from seeking information from it by subpoena because it is [Plaintiff's] retained expert and its former employee, Nickie G. Cammarata, has been listed as an expert trial witness by [Plaintiff]. On the contrary, [Producing Party's] status as a party’s testifying expert makes it more important, not less, that the facts and documents underlying its opinions be disclosed in response to a valid discovery request.

Indeed, Rule 26(a)(2) provides that parties must initially disclose, without awaiting a discovery request, the identity of any expert witness, “the data or other information considered by the witness in forming the opinions; [and] any exhibits to be used as a summary of or support for the opinions.” Although this court’s scheduling order altered the deadline imposed by the Federal Rules by which parties must provide their expert reports, underlying data and exhibits, neither that order nor Rule 26(b)(4) precludes the [Requesting Party] from propounding a subpoena duces tecum that seeks such underlying information as already exists. Rule 26(b)(4) only restricts when a party may depose its opponent’s testifying and non-testifying experts or propound interrogatories to its opponent’s non-testifying experts; it does not limit document requests.

Auto Club Family Ins. Co. v. Ahner, 2007 WL 2480322 at *3 (E.D.La. Aug. 29, 2007) (internal citations removed)

Case Blurb: Faber (II); Limitations on Discovery under FRCP 26(b)(2)(C)

Rule 26(b)(2)(C) limits otherwise permissible discovery if the court determines that: (i) the discovery sought is unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or is obtainable from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive; (ii) the party seeking discovery has had ample opportunity by discovery in the action to obtain the information sought; or (iii) the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit, taking into account the needs of the case, the amount in controversy, the parties’ resources, the importance of the issues at stake in the litigation, and the importance of the proposed discovery in resolving the issues.

Peskoff v. Faber, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51946 at *4 (D.D.C. July 7, 2008 )

Case Blurb: Faber (II); Cost Shifting Good Cause Determination

The following factors guide the “good cause” inquiry required under Rule 26(b)(2)(B): “(1) the specificity of the discovery request; the quantity of information available from other and more easily accessed sources; (2) the failure to produce relevant information that seems likely to have existed but is no longer available on more easily accessed sources; (3) the failure to produce relevant information that seems likely to have existed but is no longer available on more easily accessed sources; (4) the likelihood of finding relevant responsive information that cannot be obtained from other, more easily accessed sources; (5) predictions as to the importance and usefulness of the further information; (6) the importance of the issues at stake in the litigation; and (7) the parties’
resources.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26, advisory committee’s notes (2006).

Peskoff v. Faber, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51946 at *3-4 (D.D.C. July 7, 2008 )

Case Blurb: Cunningham; Relevancy, and Who has the Burden to Prove it

[P]ursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1), any discovery sought must be relevant. Relevancy is broadly construed, and a request for discovery should be considered if there is “any possibility” that the information sought may be relevant to the claim or defense of any party. See, e.g., Sheldon v. Vermonty, 204 F.R.D. 679, 689-90 (D.Kan.2001). “When the discovery sought appears relevant, the party resisting the discovery has the burden to establish the lack of relevancy by demonstrating that the requested discovery (1) does not come within the scope of relevance as defined under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1), or (2) is of such marginal relevance that the potential harm occasioned by discovery would outweigh the ordinary presumption in favor of broad disclosure .” Simpson v. University of Colorado, 220 F.R.D. 354, 350 (D.Colo.2004) (citations omitted). Further, the objecting party cannot “sustain this burden with boilerplate claims that the requested discovery is oppressive, burdensome or harassing.” Id. (citation omitted). However, when a request for discovery is overly broad on its face or when relevancy is not readily apparent, the party seeking the discovery has the burden to show the relevancy of the request.

Cunningham v. Standard Fire Ins. Co., 2008 WL 2668301 (D. Colo. July 1, 2008 )

Case Blurb: Younessi; Scope of Discovery, Bias Towards Disclosure

Discovery is generally available regarding any nonprivileged information relevant to any party’s claims or defenses. Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). Discovery being broad in scope and biased toward disclosure, requests need only be “reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Id.

Daimler Truck N. Am. LLC v. Younessi, 2008 WL 2519845 at *2 (W.D. Wash. June 20, 2008 )

Case Blurb: Creative Pipe; Court describes process for maintaining attorney-client privilege

[I]nsuring that a privilege or protection claim is properly asserted in the first instance and maintained thereafter involves a several step process. First, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(5), the party asserting privilege/protection must do so with particularity for each document, or category of documents, for which privilege/protection is claimed. At this first stage, it is sufficient to meet the initial burden by a properly prepared privilege log. If, after this has been done, the requesting party challenges the sufficiency of the assertion of privilege/protection, the asserting party may no longer rest on the privilege log, but bears the burden of establishing an evidentiary basis–by affidavit, deposition transcript, or other evidence– for each element of each privilege/protection claimed for each document or category of document. A failure to do so warrants a ruling that the documents must be produced because of the failure of the asserting party to meet its burden. If it makes this showing, and the requesting party still contests the assertion of privilege/protection, then the dispute is ready to submit to the court, which, after looking at the evidentiary support offered by the asserting party, can either rule on the merits of the claim or order that the disputed documents be produced for in camera inspection.

Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc., 2008 WL 2221841 at *11 (D.Md. May 29, 2008 ).

Case Blurb: Prof’l Basketball Club; Burden of proving objection to discovery requests falls to movant

In opposing discovery on the grounds of overbreadth, a party has the burden “to provide sufficient detail in terms of time, money and procedure required to produce the requested documents.” A “court must be able to ascertain what is being objected to. As such, unless it is obvious from the wording of the request itself that it is overbroad, vague, ambiguous or unduly burdensome, an objection simply stating so is not sufficiently specific.” A claim that answering discovery will require the objecting party to expend considerable time and effort to obtain the requested information is an insufficient factual basis for sustaining an objection.

Here, [Producing Party] has not explained why producing the emails at issue would be unnecessarily burdensome, but merely states that producing such emails “would increase the email universe exponentially[.]” PBC also states in its moving papers that the emails add “nothing to the case except mountains of work for no return.” But a bald assertion that discovery will be burdensome is insufficient in light of Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(2)(B). The Court is not permitted to presume the potential burdensome effects upon a party. The parties have already agreed upon a group of search terms that [Producing Party] previously used to search [key players'] emails and the Court assumes those terms may be used again to make further searches efficient.

City of Seattle v. Prof’l Basketball Club, LLC, 2008 WL 539809 (W.D. Wash. Feb. 25, 2008)(emphasis added)(citations removed).