Date: 2010-04-26 Docket: 200401T1376  Lois R. Hoegg J. | Link

In an $8 million suit, the Defendant seeks to be relieved of its obligation to search the e-mail stores of 12 custodians using an agreed-upon set of search terms. The court uses a proportionality analysis to weigh the relative cost and effort against the benefit to the plaintiff and dismisses the application.  At para 32 the Court states that the Applicant (defendant) "has the burden of satisfying the court, on a balance of probabilities, that it is just to relieve them of their duty to produce any further email in accordance with the Consent Order." The Defendants' application for relief from email document production is dismissed.  They were unable to show that the cost, time and effort involved in producing email which relates to matters in issue is so onerous as to relieve them of their obligation to produce it in accordance with Rule 32.02.