'Pippins' and the Proportionality Debate

http://ow.ly/aP1QD

An article by Wayne Matus, John Davis and Peter Ostrovski published by the New York Law Journal, and posted on law.com on the LTN webpage.

This article discusses the need for proportionality with respect to requests for preservation and production of electronically stored information during litigation. The article looks at a specific case to help define the limits of preservation obligations, Pippins v. KPMG, No. 11 Civ 0377, 2012 WL 370321 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 3, 2012).

The article states, "Courts are split on whether, and if so, how, a party may limit the scope of its preservation efforts in a given case commensurate with the likely significance of the information and the amount at issue. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York recently added her views to the debate in Pippins v. KPMG, No. 11 Civ 0377, 2012 WL 370321 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 3, 2012). The court endorsed the concept of proportionality, but pointedly refused to grant KPMG relief from full preservation activities, as a result of KPMG's perceived lack of cooperation in the discovery process and failure to demonstrate that the value of preservation was outweighed by the costs. This case provides useful lessons in evaluating and applying proportionality analysis to preservation obligations." A link to the case opinion is provided in the article.