Social Media in Litigation

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In a recent decision in the wrongful death case of Reid v. Soults et al. (hat tip: Eric Turkewitz), a state trial court denied defendants’ motion to compel plaintiff to comply with their demand for discovery and inspection regarding a YouTube video depicting the decedent, and to compel a third party (the decedent’s brother, who publicly posted the…

Read More Court Determines YouTube Video of Decedent is Not Relevant in Wrongful Death Case
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In Pecile v. Titan Capital Group, the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled on a number of discovery issues relating to, among other issues, plaintiffs’ social media postings. The case made headlines a few years back (e.g., here, here, and here) due to its racy allegations that financier Russell Abrams forced his assistant, plaintiff Danielle Pecile, to get prints of honeymoon…

Read More Court Rules on Discovery Issues in “Topless Wife Photo” Sexual Harassment Case Against Titan Capital and Russell Abrams
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What does it mean to have a lot of Facebook friends?  According to one federal judge, not much. In In re Air Crash Near Clarence Ctr., WDNY 09-md-2085 (Nov. 18, 2013), which arose from the February 12, 2009 crash of Flight 3407, defendant sought production of the Facebook “friend list” of Kevin Guo. Kevin, whose father died in…

Read More Your (Facebook) Friends Are Irrelevant
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Governor Cuomo recently signed a bill (A6554) that amends New York’s protective order statute, CPLR § 3103(a), to permit non-parties to object to discovery. According to the bill’s accompanying memorandum: This measure would amend CPLR § 3103(a) to expand the delineated persons who may seek the remedy of a protective order in regard to the use of discovery…

Read More New Bill Authorizes Non-Parties to Object to Discovery
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You’ve got a good – make that great – personal injury case. Liability is a lock: It is undisputed that, while lawfully in a crosswalk with the light in her favor, your client was struck by an EvilCorp. delivery truck after its intoxicated driver (while making work-related deliveries) ran a red light. Damages are potentially…

Read More Advising Clients Regarding Social Media Postings
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In the recent case of Matter of John W. Danforth Group, Inc., the Western District of New York considered, and rejected, a company’s petition under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 27 to perpetuate evidence in anticipation of an as-yet unfiled employment discrimination action against it. Under limited circumstances, a potential party to litigation can obtain discovery…

Read More Employer, Anticipating Sexual Harassment Suit, Denied Pre-Lawsuit Discovery From Prospective Plaintiff’s “Facebook Friend”
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A federal court last week struck down an employment discrimination defendant’s attempt to obtain broad-ranging discovery from plaintiff in her Title VII gender discrimination, hostile work environment, sexual harassment, and retaliation case. The court’s decision in Kennedy v. Contract Pharmaceutical Corp. is here. Social Media Document Requests Social media is everywhere, and much has been written on…

Read More Court Rejects Defendants’ Attempts to Obtain Social Media Discovery From Discrimination Plaintiff
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On June 30, the NYC Criminal Court rejected Twitter’s attempt to quash a subpoena seeking “any and all user information, including email addresses, as well as any and all tweets posted for the period of September 15, 2011 to December 31, 2011” from a Twitter account maintained by defendant Malcolm Harris (whose tweets, apparently, bolstered…

Read More Court: Tweets Are “Gifted To The World”; Must Be Produced In OWS Case
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In D’Agostino v. YRC Inc. et al, 565-2011, 2012 WL 11980337 (NY Sup Ct Orange Cty May 17, 2012) – another decision in this rapidly-evolving area of the law – an Orange County trial court ordered the production of a personal injury plaintiff’s Facebook postings pertaining to her pre-incident condition. There, the court granted defendants’ request…

Read More Court Orders Production of Facebook Posts
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