Perspective: Dude, What Happened To My PC?

Reprinted with permission from CNet.com.

You may have heard how important it is to preserve evidence related to a legal proceeding. Failing to do so can cost you serious amounts of money and might trigger serious evidentiary sanctions that essentially could gut your legal case.

That's why companies and individuals take great care to retain relevant evidence not only in document form, but also electronic evidence. But this is not the end of the story.

The recent case of APC Filtration, Inc. v. Becke provides a classic example of how parties can get it wrong when it comes to maintaining evidence.

In this federal case from Chicago, the plaintiff company, APC Filtration, had asserted trademark misappropriation allegations against the defendants, a competing company and its founder who had previously been the national sales manager for APC. In discovery, the defendants were unable to produce information bearing on contacts between them and a former supplier for APC, and a