Calling the discovery misconduct by defendants in a patent case “among the most egregious this court has ever seen,” a federal judge sanctioned thehomestore.com, the National Association of Home Builders of the United States, and the National Association of Realtors on Aug. 13.
Northern District U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth LaPorte took the organizations — all represented by Alston & Bird — to task for destroying evidence and for claiming they didn’t have key documents and source code, then somehow finding them once sanctions were threatened. She also chastised the defendants for having made little effort to preserve evidence to start with.
