• From e-Discovery Team: Ralph Losey, Mary Mack, and Bret Anders in “America’s got E-Discovery Talent” – Part 3.
• Great post from the blog “But I Did Everything Right!” on the ABA’s efforts in regard to law school tenure.
• IQPC is having their 10th e-Discovery event in December.
• Which messages from your Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare/fill in your own social networking site here are protected from e-discovery? Here is another article on social networking sites and whether they are subject to e-discovery. (Hat Tip: Integreon)
• Lawyers are getting to like the smell of rotten eggs.

From Bow Tie Law’s Blog:

A Defendant in a gang related murder and assault case sought to introduce evidence of the victim’s sister’s MySpace page to show the victim’s violent nature toward a rival gang; a propensity for violence; and that the victim started the fight that ended in his death.  People v. Williams, 2010 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1251, at *23 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. Feb. 23, 2010).

The Court excluded the MySpace as evidence.

The Sister’s MySpace Profile

The victims were brother and sister.  The brother was killed in a gun fight with the Defendants.

The sister’s Myspace profile contained a series of photos (or video, the opinion is not clear) of the siblings dressed as rival gang members.  The MySpace evidence depicted the brother pretending to punch the sister and her falling to the ground.  Williams, at *23.

The MySpace evidence was described as a videotape of the profile.  Id. This implies that a video camera was set to record the profile.  It is also highly possible the profile contained video and it was collected as a video file.

One of the Defendants tried to use the video to show the victim was violent toward members of the rival gang.  Williams, at *23.  The State objected to the video evidence on both foundational and relevancy grounds.  Id.

Bow Tie Law’s Blog – Exclusion of MySpace Evidence in Gang Related Murder Trial

From the NYTimes, Hat Tip, Integreon:

The message on Rodney Bradford’s Facebook page, posted at 11:49 a.m. on Oct. 17, asked where his pancakes were. The words were typed from a computer in his father’s apartment in Harlem.

At the time, the sentence, written in street slang, was just another navel-gazing, cryptic Facebook status update — meaningless to anyone besides Mr. Bradford. But when Mr. Bradford, 19, was arrested the next day as a suspect in a robbery at the Farragut Houses in Brooklyn, where he lives, the words took on greater importance. They became his alibi…

The growing relationship of e-discovery and social media continues…

From Reuters:

Mark S. Howitson, deputy general counsel of Facebook, will deliver the day two keynote address at ALM`s upcoming LegalTech New York 2010, the nation`s largest and most prestigious legal technology conference and trade show. LegalTech New York will take place February 1-3 at the Hilton Hotel in New York City. Complete conference information is available atwww.legaltechshow.com…

From Bow Tie Law’s Blog:

Social networking litigation will be written by the end users of those websites. In Bass v Miss Porter’s School, the Defendant school sought from the Plaintiff discovery of her alleged teasing and taunting on Facebook. Bass v. Miss Porter’s Sch., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99916 (D. Conn. Oct. 27, 2009).

The Plaintiff objected to the Facebook discovery request on the following grounds:

1) The Facebook information was “irrelevant and immaterial” and was “not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence;” and

2) “[Plaintiff's] ability to produce responsive documents was severely curtailed by Defendants’ actions in disconnecting the Plaintiff’s access to her school email and intranet access prior to the filing of this lawsuit.” Bass, at *2.

After subpoenaing Facebook, Facebook agreed to produce “reasonably available data” from the Plaintiff’s profile from January 1, 2008 to May 1, 2009. Bass, at *2.

The Court ordered the Plaintiff to produce 1) all responsive Facebook discovery to the Defendant and 2) everything produced from Facebook to the Court for in camera review. Bass, at *3.

Bow Tie Law’s Blog- In the Eye of the Beholder: The Relevance of Facebook Evidence