Whenever e-discovery comes up, you can almost always count on the topic to include a discussion of sanctions. That’s not an accident. There has been an uptick in both the volume of filings asking for discovery sanctions and orders granting those requests. And, for better or for worse, these trends don’t seem to be at risk of abating.
The most common ground for these filings? A failure to take reasonable steps to preserve potentially relevant documents and data. Lawyers that aren’t mindful of their preservation obligations may expose their clients, and themselves, to significant sanctions because they didn’t take appropriate steps under the circumstances to ensure that potentially relevant information is preserved.
