“Will Courts Enforce Protective Order Restrictions on AI Use?”

In a recent post, Phil Favro asked Will Courts Enforce Protective Order Restrictions on AI Use? (Favro Law Sep. 29, 2026).  I have reviewed a lot of these orders, but Phil’s suggestion is one I...

Negligent Failure to Preserve Does Not Trigger Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(e)(2) Sanctions

In a prior blog, “When Was the Duty to Preserve Triggered in an Employment Dispute?,” I discussed the facts and trigger analysis in Alsayiri v. Crucial MRO, LLC, 2026 WL 3315271 (S.D. Ill. Nov. 3, 2026)....

Honest Error – No Sanctions, But a Penalty

A Little Grace

Discovery Just Got a New Team Member

Imagine starting a new matter and finding that, before you have written a single search term, a member of your team has already read the first thousand documents. It has flagged the three people who...

When is an In-Person Deposition Warranted? When Credibility of a Fleeing Felon is in Issue

Improper Reliance on A.I. + Failure to Use Litigation Support Experts + Lack of Transparency = Failure to Comply With “Meet & Confer” Order

After a hearing, the Lighthouse court “issued an interim Order compelling the parties to meet and confer, and to retain an independent third-party electronically stored information (‘ESI’) specialist to assist the parties to effectuate the...

Insurer’s Denial of Coverage for Litigation Costs During Doc Review Justifies Late Assertion of Privilege

Defendants failed to timely assert privilege.  Plaintiff claimed waiver. However, because Defendants’ insurance company denied coverage of litigation costs at the time when review of 700,000 documents was to commence, a court held that privilege...

Schrödinger’s Cat Goes to Court, Part Two: The Cat, the Gavel, and the New Age of Quantum Law

At the end of Part One, Schrödinger’s Cat had left the box, crossed from the laboratory into the courtroom, and, with a little artistic license, acquired counsel. The image was whimsical. The transition was not....

“Contention Interrogatories” Asking for “All” Facts Were Too Broad

Contention interrogatories ask an opponent to state the facts on which it relies to support a specific contention. Fed.R.Civ.P. 33(a)(2) as amended in 1970 states: An interrogatory is not objectionable merely because it asks for an...

The Standard for a Preservation Order

“Plaintiff True Footage Inc. asks the Court to enter an order directing Defendants Automax AI Inc., Automax AI (US) Inc., and Humza Ahmed to preserve evidence. The Court denies Plaintiff’s request.”  True Footage Inc. v....

The Four Eras of Search: From “Which Keywords?” to “What Happened?”

For the first 20 years of my career, I asked questions for a living. As a trial lawyer, I wanted to know what really happened. Who knew about the problem? When did they know? What...