Simple Mistakes Lead to Discovery Sanctions Against Delta Air Lines

http://ow.ly/a32MJ

An article by Kevin Kelly posted on the e-Discovery Law Review website of Cozen O'Connor.

This article discusses the case In re Delta/Airtran Baggage Fee Antitrust Litigation, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13462 (N.D. Ga. February 3, 2012), and provides information about the sanctions entered for eDiscovery abuses in that case.

The article discusses the fact that Delta had produced documents in two separate matters, both involving allegations of price fixing regarding baggage fees.  The government was involved in one of the two matters, as noticed that there were documents which were not produced to the plaintiff's in the class action suit of private claimants.  Delta than apparently admitted to certain errors made in the production for the class action matter, and noticed that certain electronic systems were not searched.

The article states, "The investigation revealed two sources of unproduced documents. First, the contents of a number of custodian hard drives were never uploaded to Delta’s electronic information management program. Only documents uploaded to the program were reviewed for production. Second, during its investigation, Delta’s IT personnel found an unmarked box containing backup tapes of server information in the office that manages document discovery responses. The tapes contained documents that were relevant to the baggage fee litigation. Delta eventually released an additional 60,000 pages of documents to Plaintiffs.

As a result, Plaintiffs sought discovery sanctions from Delta. The court found that Delta was subject to sanctions for two violations. First, the court determined that Delta had failed to make a reasonable inquiry into the completeness of its discovery responses as it had certified pursuant to FRCP 26(g). The court indicated that Delta should have done a better job making sure that the IT department followed its instructions and produced the correct documents. Based on the violation of FRCP 26(g), the court awarded Plaintiffs reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, caused by Delta’s violation. Second, the court determined that Delta had breached its obligation to supplement its discovery requests pursuant to FRCP 26(e). According to the court, Delta should have been more diligent in searching such an obvious area for tapes related to the investigation."  Attorney fees, costs and other monetary sanctions were issued due to Delta's errors.