Destroying The Evidence In A Business Dispute

An internecine dispute between a company and several shareholders that is playing out in federal court in the Northern District of California provides an object lesson in bungled e-discovery protocol and what not to do when you anticipate litigation, says a post from e-discovery software company Zapproved. In his order imposing more than $200,000 in sanctions and costs – against the defendants’ counsel as well the defendants themselves – the judge included a graphic list of their transgressions, which included deployment of “Crap Cleaner” software (“with a motion to compel pending”), false certification that document production was complete and failure “to take any steps to preserve or collect relevant documents for two years after discussing this very suit.”