Date: 2008-03-17 Docket: 05-CV-300129 PD2 Perell J. | Link

The defendant in a case about a wrongful solicitation of clients by a former employee has appealed a Master's order to produce the laptop he uses for work purposes to a forensic data recovery expert who would inspect the computer for e-mails containing names of the plaintiff's clients or customers. With $1 million at stake, the plaintiff requested the order because the defendant had not produced emails that the plaintiff could prove had been on his computer since he had been one of the recipients. Defendant claims these emails were not produced because they had been deleted. The defendant relies on Baldwin Janzen Insurance Services (2004) Ltd. v. Janzen and Desgagne v. Yuen to support the position that the Master had erred in his order. After reviewing Principle 2 of The Sedona Canada Principles (published January 2008), the Court decided that the plaintiff had produced evidence of the existence of relevant electronic information on the laptop and concluded that the Master had been correct to order its production for inspection. The Master's order asks for a highly targeted search of the recovered contents of the laptop, which also distinguishes it from the requests for the entire contents of a drive in both Baldwin and Desgagne. Furthermore, the plaintiff has agreed to pay for the work of the forensic data recovery expert.