Judge Scheindlin's opinion in Pension Committee of the University of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of America Securities, LLC indicates that courts are taking e-discovery obligations seriously and will sanction parties that fail to abide by the standards set forth by the courts.

In what will likely be an often-cited opinion, Judge Shira Scheindlin, author of the Zubulake decisions—some of the leading cases in e-discovery—issued an 87-page, wide-ranging opinion (officially titled "Zubulake Revisited: Six Years Later") sanctioning 13 plaintiffs for failing to meet their discovery obligations. Pension Committee of the University of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of America Securities, LLC, No. 05 Civ. 9016 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 15, 2010).

Background

In this case, a group of investors brought suit to recover losses resulting from the liquidation of two British Virgin Islands based hedge funds. Although the plaintiffs commenced the lawsuit in February 2004, 13 of these plaintiffs neglected to issue written preservation notices until 2007. By the time that these plaintiffs attempted to comply with their preservation obligations, relevant documents had either been lost or destroyed. Additionally, the plaintiffs failed to conduct a diligent document collection and review. Rather, many of the plaintiffs did not provide supervision over the collection process, sometimes allowing inexperienced employees to search their own documents without any instructions. Other plaintiffs failed to collect any documents at all from key employees or search locations in which the documents would likely be found.

Read the full story originally posted by EDD Blog Online.