Discovery

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The New York Court of Appeals (New York’s highest court) recently clarified the standards applicable when a party to litigation seeks information, or discovery, from a non-party. The case, Matter of Kapon v. Koch, arises from billionaire William I. Koch’s lawsuit to recover damages for the alleged sale of counterfeit wine. (The court issued the decision on…

Read More NY Court of Appeals Clarifies Burdens Relating to Nonparty Subpoenas Under CPLR 3101(a)(4)
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In a recent decision in the wrongful death case of Reid v. Soults et al. (hat tip: Eric Turkewitz), a state trial court denied defendants’ motion to compel plaintiff to comply with their demand for discovery and inspection regarding a YouTube video depicting the decedent, and to compel a third party (the decedent’s brother, who publicly posted the…

Read More Court Determines YouTube Video of Decedent is Not Relevant in Wrongful Death Case
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In Pecile v. Titan Capital Group, the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled on a number of discovery issues relating to, among other issues, plaintiffs’ social media postings. The case made headlines a few years back (e.g., here, here, and here) due to its racy allegations that financier Russell Abrams forced his assistant, plaintiff Danielle Pecile, to get prints of honeymoon…

Read More Court Rules on Discovery Issues in “Topless Wife Photo” Sexual Harassment Case Against Titan Capital and Russell Abrams
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What does it mean to have a lot of Facebook friends?  According to one federal judge, not much. In In re Air Crash Near Clarence Ctr., WDNY 09-md-2085 (Nov. 18, 2013), which arose from the February 12, 2009 crash of Flight 3407, defendant sought production of the Facebook “friend list” of Kevin Guo. Kevin, whose father died in…

Read More Your (Facebook) Friends Are Irrelevant
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In a recent discovery order in Chen-Oster v. Goldman, Sachs & Co. – a putative class action in which plaintiffs allege that the Goldman Sachs defendants “engaged in a pattern of gender discrimination against female professional employees in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” and the NYC Human Rights Law – Southern District Magistrate…

Read More Court Cites and Applies Broad Discovery Rules in Pattern/Practice Gender Discrimination Case Against Goldman Sachs
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In Strong v. City of New York, the Appellate Division, First Department recently held that sanctions were appropriate in light of the NYPD’s deletion of audio recordings preceding a car accident allegedly initiated by an NYPD driver. Plaintiff and others were injured when an NYPD vehicle “collided with a vehicle operated by defendant Geraldo Falcon,…

Read More Deletion of Radio Transmissions Results in Sanctions in NYPD Car Accident Case
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In the recent case of Matter of John W. Danforth Group, Inc., the Western District of New York considered, and rejected, a company’s petition under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 27 to perpetuate evidence in anticipation of an as-yet unfiled employment discrimination action against it. Under limited circumstances, a potential party to litigation can obtain discovery…

Read More Employer, Anticipating Sexual Harassment Suit, Denied Pre-Lawsuit Discovery From Prospective Plaintiff’s “Facebook Friend”
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A federal court last week struck down an employment discrimination defendant’s attempt to obtain broad-ranging discovery from plaintiff in her Title VII gender discrimination, hostile work environment, sexual harassment, and retaliation case. The court’s decision in Kennedy v. Contract Pharmaceutical Corp. is here. Social Media Document Requests Social media is everywhere, and much has been written on…

Read More Court Rejects Defendants’ Attempts to Obtain Social Media Discovery From Discrimination Plaintiff
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In a letter to three federal judges, including the Honorable John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York, NELA/NY members Herb Eisenberg and Julian Birnbaum explain why recent proposed changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that would tend to limit discovery would for that reason be detrimental to employment discrimination plaintiffs.…

Read More Letter Highlights Evidentiary Difficulties Faced By Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs
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