Upstate Plumbing Inc v. AAA Upstate Plumbing of Greenville LLC

Filing 43

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION, granting 37 Motion for Discovery. Signed by Honorable A Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr on 7/31/2018.(abuc)

THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA
GREENVILLE DIVISION
Upstate Plumbing, Inc.,
Plaintiff and Counterclaim Defendant,
Civil Action No.: 6:17-cv-521-AMQ

v.
AAA Upstate Plumbing of Greenville, LLC,
Defendant and Counterclaimant.

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED
INFORMATION

Based upon the Joint Motion for Entry of Proposed Order Governing Electronically Stored
Information (ECF No. 37), the Court ORDERS as follows:
1.

This Order supplements all other discovery rules and orders. It streamlines Electronically
Stored Information (“ESI”) production to promote a “just, speedy, and inexpensive
determination” of this action, as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 1.

2.

This Order may be modified for good cause.

If the parties cannot resolve their

disagreements regarding modifications, the parties may submit their competing proposals
and a summary of their dispute.
3.

Costs will be shifted for disproportionate ESI production requests pursuant to Federal Rule
of Civil Procedure 26. Likewise, a party’s nonresponsive or dilatory discovery tactics will
be cost-shifting considerations.

4.

A party’s meaningful compliance with this Order and efforts to promote efficiency and
reduce costs will be considered in cost-shifting determinations.

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5.

For purposes of this Order, requests for electronic mail are treated separately than requests
for any other type of electronic record.

6.

General ESI production requests under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 34 and 45 do not
require production of metadata absent a showing of good cause.

7.

General ESI production requests under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 34 and 45 do not
include email or other forms of electronic correspondence (collectively “email”). To obtain
email, parties must propound specific email production requests. Although this provision
is intended to avoid the requirement and expense of mass ESI searching for the parties and
counsel, it is not intended to, nor shall it be interpreted to conflict with the following:
(a)

Given its growth in importance in communication and the realities of its use,
emails can include communications in a civil action that are important to a just
adjudication.

(b)

While the parties are not required to conduct mass searches of ESI and emails
except as allowed under this consent order, known and relevant discoverable ESI
and emails are still subject to discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure to the extent requested in a proper discovery request.

8.

Email production requests will only be propounded for specific issues, rather than general
discovery of a product or business. Indiscriminate terms, such as the producing company's
name or its product name, are inappropriate unless combined with narrowing search criteria
that sufficiently reduce the risk of overproduction.

9.

Each requesting party shall limit its email production requests through mass ESI searches
to a total of three custodians per producing party and not more than twenty search terms
per custodian. The parties may jointly agree to modify these limits, or agree on ESI mass

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search protocol otherwise deemed reasonably appropriate for the case, without the Court’s
leave.
10.

All documents that exist in paper form, and all ESI documents or emails that are redacted
to remove privileged information or communications, shall be produced as pdf or tiff
images.

11.

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d), the inadvertent production of privileged or
work product protected ESI is not a waiver in the pending case or in any other federal or
state proceeding.

12.

The mere production of ESI in a litigation as part of a mass production will not
automatically constitute a waiver for any purpose.

IT IS SO ORDERED.
s/A. Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr.
A. Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr.
United States District Judge
July 31, 2018
Greenville, South Carolina

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