KPMG Loses E-Discovery Appeal in 'Pippins' Labor Case

http://ow.ly/8TZ5z

An article by Evan Koblentz posted on law.com on the LTN webpage.

This article discusses the recent labor case Pippins v. KPMG, and a link to information about the case is provided in the article.

This case has received a great deal of attention, based on the magistrate's wide-reaching preservation order.  A recent appeal had hoped to vacate the magistrate's order, and the Judge had also hoped that the dispute in question would become moot based on further discussion by the parties.  However, the discovery disputes are not being resolved by the parties, and the court had to recently render an order.  The article states, "It smacks of chutzpah ... to argue that the Magistrate failed to balance the costs and benefits of preservation when KPMG refused to cooperate with that analysis by providing the very item that would, if examined, demonstrate whether there was any benefit at all to preservation," McMahon asserted.

"KPMG could have established [that producing all the drives was unnecessary] by producing several hard drives to Plaintiffs and Magistrate Judge Cott. ... But KPMG has established nothing of the sort," McMahon stated.

McMahon added, "Even assuming that KPMG's preservation costs are both accurate and wholly attributable to this litigation -- which I cannot verify -- I cannot possibly balance the costs and benefits of preservations when I'm missing one side of the scale (the benefits).""