Failure To Adequately Advise Clients On Their Preservation Obligations Can Be Considered Malpractice

By now, most litigators should know that they have an affirmative duty to advise their clients about the duty to preserve potentially relevant documents. Despite this, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently denied an attorney defendant's motion for summary judgment in part because the record was not clear as to whether the attorney defendant fulfilled its obligations with respect to the duty to preserve.

Industrial Quick Search, Inc., Michael Meiresonne, and Meiresonne & Associates (collectively "Plaintiffs") sued their law firm Miller, Rosado & Alogis, LLP ("Defendants") for malpractice. Neil Miller and Chris Rosado, named partners of the firm, were also individually named as Defendants. Defendants represented Plaintiffs in an underlying copyright infringement lawsuit in which default judgement was entered against Plaintiffs for misappropriating confidential information, plagiarizing copyrighted material, and for deliberately