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Federal E-Discovery: Court Orders Cost-Shifting for ‘Needlessly Overbroad’ Discovery
August 11, 2020
Litigation partners Chris Boehning and Dan Toal’s latest Federal E-Discovery column appeared in the August 11 issue of the New York Law Journal. The article, “Court Orders Cost-Shifting for ‘Needlessly Overbroad’ Discovery,” discusses a recent court decision that brings renewed attention to amendments made in 2015 to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure—specifically to the possibility of cost-shifting under Rule 26(c). The authors discuss when it may be appropriate to engage in cost-shifting in the context of the decision in Lawson v. Spirit AeroSystems, in which the court found good cause to shift expenses for discovery of electronically stored information after the plaintiff repeatedly insisted on exhaustive discovery of a specific topic, even after the defendant had demonstrated the marginal usefulness of those discovery efforts. Chris and Dan highlight the case as a valuable guide for courts and parties on when they should deny requests for discovery with marginal relevance, as well as on when cost-shifting may appropriately be used by courts to shield parties from undue burden and expense. E-discovery counsel Ross Gotler and e-discovery attorney Lidia Kekis assisted in the preparation of this article.