In Worley v. Central Florida Young Men’s Christian Association, 228 So.3rd 18 (Florida, 2017), the Supreme Court ruled disclosure of a financial relationship between a party, a plaintiff’s attorney and an expert, is no longer discoverable. That Court did not, answer the question of whether the same rule applies regarding […]
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Spoliation of evidence has been defined by the courts as “the destruction or significant alteration of evidence, or the failure to preserve property for another’s use as evidence in pending or reasonably foreseeable litigation.” The concept behind this word defies one of the basic tenants in our legal system – […]
An MDL (multidistrict litigation) was established for the prosecution of individual personal injury lawsuits against Biomet in the fall of 2012. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) heard attorney arguments on September 20, 2012, at a hearing in New York City. The plaintiffs requested consolidation of the pending lawsuits […]
Federal Rules were last updated in 2016 and the changes were thought to be significant. Welcomed by some and scorned by others, those changes are still being evaluated and applied by judges across the country. The Sedona Conference has drafted a primer for FRCP 34. Like revisions to the federal […]
“But, your honor, we conducted a search and collection from all sources we deemed appropriate and where we believed responsive and relevant information was located…I mean, honest judge.” In effect that is the response form a party being questioned about the extent and sufficiency of their discovery collection efforts. Is […]
Who is to blame for a “document dump” – a “snow storm” – an obfuscation of information? Sometimes its intentional and sometimes it is not. Everyone – both plaintiff and defendant; both teams of lawyers. Requesters are imprecise and can be over reaching. Producers are often inflexible and unreasonable. What […]
I still remember typewriters. Heck, I still remember carbon paper, mimeographs and bag phones. Would a company, “back in the day”, have ever asked an employee, “hey, we need you to bring your own typewriter, desk, chair, or carbon paper” to work with you? Of course, not. In the recent […]
The Sedona Conference has a slogan: “Moving the law forward in a reasoned and just way”. That slogan is exactly the way I have described this impressive organization and what do. The Sedona Conference regularly drafts and disseminates commentary articles on various areas of the law and the practice of litigation. I […]
The party receiving discovery requests in litigation has the job of trying to understand the locations of potentially responsive data and documents; determining the identity of key custodians; and determining the most efficient and cost effective method for collection. The requesting party has as complicated job. For discovery requests to […]
Recently, the Second District Court of Appeals decided the case of Gina Marie Bove, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Anthony Bove, deceased v Naples HMA, LLC d/b/a Physicians Regional Medical Center-Pine Ridge; William Akin, MD; and Jay Wang, MD. (41 Fla. L. Weekly D827f). An appeal was taken […]