A Spoliation Ace In The Hole

A district court case decided last month shows how a company's email retention and litigation hold policies can affect claims of spoliation by adverse parties in litigation. In Danny Lynn Electrical v. Veolia ES Solid Waste, No. 2:09CV192-MHT, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31685, at *2 (M.D. Ala. March 9, 2012), the Plaintiffs filed a motion for sanctions alleging the Defendants had "blatantly disregarded their duty to preserve electronic information in this case." Specifically, the Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendants failed to implement a litigation hold, deleted a number of email accounts, and failed to disable an email "auto delete" function after litigation commenced. They requested the full spectrum of sanctions, including monetary penalties, adverse evidentiary inferences, and the striking of affirmative defenses.