In Yoder & Frey Auctioneers v. EquipmentFacts, No. 3:10-cv-0159 DAK, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50345 (N.D. Ohio April 8, 2013), the district court denied the defendant’s motions both for summary judgment and in limine. Key to the summary judgment motion was the defendant’s claim that by introducing, through a witness who did not offer an expert opinion, a log that purportedly showed the defendant had committed the computer intrusion at the heart of the matter, the plaintiffs had not made out their case.
Key to the spoliation motion was the defendant’s assertion that said evidence of intrusion came solely from the unauthenticated log, while the plaintiffs destroyed the server and software that were in place at the time of the acts at issue and which generated the log, thus making verification of the log impossible. The opinion fundamentally misunderstands what digital forensic evidence is and when it is required.
