e-Discovery Docket Sheet

In a class-action consumer-protection lawsuit, the defendant objected to a request for electronic documents including 'any and all information related to e-mail.' The defendant claimed that the request was overbroad and unduly burdensome because it would cost about $10 million to produce the documents in .TIFF format. The plaintiffs countered by asserting that the defendant could first produce the documents in 'native PST format' and then print the documents 'without any additional cost.' Declining to rule on the costs issue, the magistrate judge ordered the parties to confer and agree on a data-sampling protocol, a production format or both. If the parties couldn't agree, then a hearing would be held to determine production scope and cost-shifting. The magistrate also found the plaintiff's request for e-mail overly broad and stated, '[t]he mere suspicion that a document containing relevant evidence might be located in defendant's computer files does not justify the production of all e-mail communications or computer records. … [R]equests must be reasonably tailored to secure the production of documents relevant to the issues in this lawsuit.' Thompson v. Jiffy Lube Int'l, Inc., 2006 WL 1174040 (D. Kan. May 1, 2006).