FYI - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rae Cogar" <rcogar@localnet.com> To: <CLCC-MEMS@MAIL.ABANET.ORG> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 7:26 AM Subject: website case

Here is a recently reported case from California that found a company guilty of spoliation of evidence by changing information on their website during litigation. One point made by the court in this case is there were no policies or procedures for the updating or deleting of material from the website. You can find this opinion at:

http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/tentrule.nsf/4f9d4c4a03b0cf70882567980073b

2e4/cf68f686007991fa88256af1006a9e16?OpenDocument

(you will need to cut and paste url)

Spoliation Sanctions for Deletion of Web Page The defendant corporation moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, denying minimum contacts with the state of California. The plaintiff offered as evidence a page from the defendant's web site that listed a California office address. While the motion was pending, the California address disappeared from the defendant's web site. Though one employee of the defendant testified that he had deleted the page in routine maintenance, there was no corporate maintenance policy that would explain the deletion. The court granted the plaintiff's motion to enjoin further spoliation and ordered that the defendant pay plaintiff's attorney's fees as a sanction. Pennar Software Corp. v. Fortune 500 Sys., 51 Fed. R. Serv. 279 (N.D. Cal. 2001).

Another case for good records management!

Rae Cogar, Esq. RCS Consulting Hamburg, NY 716-646-6192 rcogar@localnet.com