Tired of the “Crap”, Court Sanctions Investors and Lawyers for Several Instances of Spoliation, by Doug Austin, eDiscoverydaily Blog

http://tinyurl.com/k3d74yu

In Clear-View Technologies, Inc., v. Rasnick et al, 5:13-cv-02744-BLF (N.D. Cal. May 13, 2015), California Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal sanctioned the defendants $212,320 and also granted a permissive adverse jury instruction that allows the presumption that the defendants’ spoliated documents due to a series of ‘transgressions’ by the defendants and their prior counsel.

You’ve got to love an order that begins this way:

‘Deployment of ‘Crap Cleaner’ software—with a motion to compel pending. Lost media with relevant documents. False certification that document production was complete. Failure to take any steps to preserve or collect relevant documents for two years after discussing this very suit. Any one of these transgressions by {the defendants} and their prior counsel might justify sanctions. Taken together, there can be no doubt.’ . . .