SAN FRANCISCO — A San Diego magistrate judge is recommending severe discovery sanctions against a technology company that withheld key documents in a trademark case, and against its LeClairRyan trial attorney who certified that the documents didn’t exist.
“Federal courts do not require perfection in [electronically stored document] discovery,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Mitchell Dembin wrote in a 78-page order issued Aug. 7. But R.F. Technologies Inc. chief executive officer Babak Noorian and LeClairRyan partner Thomas O’Leary crossed the line by certifying responses that were “false, misleading, and made without first conducting a reasonable inquiry.”
