Spoliation Hearing on Deliberate Tape Destruction Slated for Amelia Island

Blue-ribbon panel will consider whether spoliation sanctions are appropriate for deliberate destruction of backup tapes that occurred after company was on notice of pending litigation

Washington DC – June 28, 2011 – Anne Kershaw, president and co-founder of the eDiscovery Institute and an e-discovery, litigation and legacy data management expert, announced that the 2011 Legal Technology Summit being held at Amelia Island on Sept. 6-8, 2011 will include a special blue-ribbon panel that will conduct a mock hearing to examine whether sanctions would be appropriate in a case where defendants knowingly destroyed backup tapes after they became aware of the pending litigation where they had no reason to believe the tapes contained unique relevant data. According to Kershaw, “It’s crucial to examine what parties should be reasonably expected to retain to meet their litigation-related preservation obligations. There are enormous costs to corporations and other large organizations that develop a hoarding mentality thinking that it will somehow insulate them from sanctions.”

Participants will play the roles of plaintiffs and defense counsel as well as plaintiffs’ expert. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV (S.D.N.Y.) will preside over the mock hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, panel members and the audience will vote via cell phone text messages on how they would have decided the case and why. Results will be shown live on screen as a prelude to what is sure to be a spirited discussion of how to meet a company’s preservation obligations without going broke or getting sanctioned in the interim.

The panel is part of an overall theme of the Summit of examining the true costs and risks of over-preservation and considering what the options are for resolving those issues.

The Summit is co-presented by Above the Law, and the American Society of Digital Forensics and the eDiscovery Institute.


About the Electronic Discovery Institute
The Electronic Discovery Institute (www.ediscoveryinstitute.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization that identifies and promote technologies and processes that can lower the cost or improve the quality of handling electronic discovery. The EDI website, has reports and articles available at no cost relating to its prior work in evaluating document categorization and conducting industry surveys on duplicate consolidation, email threading, and predictive coding. Its Judges Guide to Cost-Effective E-Discovery has been very well received.

About Above the Law
Above the Law is a prominent source for original legal news, counting among its readers everyone from general counsels and senior partners at the nation’s biggest firms to the ranks of first-year law students. Written by lawyers for lawyers, Above the Law’s staff blankets institutions like the Supreme Court, law schools, life at firms both big and small, and the impact technology has on the practice of law. It’s the first with salary and bonus information and is a hub of professional advice for legal professionals at all career stages.

About the American Society of Digital Forensics and eDiscovery
The American Society of Digital Forensics and eDiscovery (www.asdfed.com) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit association serving attorneys, compliance professionals, digital forensics examiners, litigation support professionals, paralegals and technologists.

Contact Info:
Summit information is available at: www.legaltechnology2011.com

Joe Howie: Joe@eDiscoveryInsitute.org