Cautionary Tale on Responding To E-Discovery Requests
On January 7, 2008, a Magistrate Judge in California issued a sanctions order imposing over $8.5 million in monetary sanctions on a company for discovery abuses in a case that company lost at trial, in what should be a cautionary tale for companies and their lawyers as they respond to discovery requests. (Qualcomm, Inc. v. Broadcom, Inc., U.S. Dist. Ct., So. Dist. Of Calif., Case No. 05civ958-B (BLM).) Magistrate Judge Barbara Major sanctioned six of Qualcomm's outside counsel -- junior associates through partners. Although she did not impose monetary sanctions on counsel, she referred the sanctioned attorneys to the State Bar and ordered them and Qualcomm’s in-house attorneys to determine how the discovery breaches occurred and to develop a protocol to prevent similar failures in future cases.
Continue Reading...