SHIRLEY WILLIAMS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SPRINT/UNITED MANAGEMENT COMPANY, Defendant., 230 F.R.D. 640

Summary

The employee, on behalf of 1,727 other plaintiffs, alleged that age was a determining factor in her employer's decision to terminate her employment during an RIF. The parties were engaged in discovery, and the employer responded to the court's show cause order, stating that it provided the spreadsheets request by plaintiffs in native Excel format, but deleted metadata. In considering the deletion of the metadata, or "data about data," the court was guided by Principle 12 and Comment 12.a. to the Sedona Principles for Electronic Document Production and found that although emerging standards of electronic discovery appeared to articulate a general presumption against the production of metadata, the producing party should produce the electronic documents pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 with their metadata intact, unless that party timely objected to the production of metadata, the parties agreed that the metadata should not be produced, or the producing party requested a protective order. ...