Ensuring Discovery Compliance: Sanctions Relating To Past, Present, And Future Adverse Parties

Monetary sanctions, attorneys fees, and adverse inference jury instructions are the more common type of sanctions imposed on litigants for the spoliation of evidence, or not producing relevant documents. Recently, however, a court has increased the severity and impact of sanctions by applying them not only to current litigation, but also to a party's future litigation, with the effects lingering for years to come

The Underlying Suit

"Any competent electronic discovery effort would have located this email." These words were written in an opinion by a United States District Judge in the Eastern District of Texas, filed on March 1, 2011, in Green v. Blitz U.S.A., Inc., No. 2:07-CV-372, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20353 (E.D. Tex., Mar. 1, 2011)