Courts weigh in on social media discovery requests 
By:
Correy Stephenson
Published: November 19, 2012
Tags: Discovery, e-discovery, electronic discovery, Facebook, Federal Rules of Evidence, Home Depot, social media, social networking, technology
Lawyers still making their way along the learning curve of social media evidence may struggle to find guidance from court opinions.
But two recent decisions with different results offer some clues on how to narrowly focus a discovery request to pass muster.
Authentication certificates admissible in fraud case
Published: September 24, 2012
Tags: Confrontation Clause, Federal Rules of Evidence, fraud, Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts
A criminal fraud defendant’s Confrontation Clause rights were not violated by the admission of certificates of authentication for foreign public and business records, the 9th Circuit has ruled in affirming a conviction.
Subordinate’s account of employer’s bias isn’t hearsay
Published: November 14, 2011
Tags: Family and Medical Leave Act, Federal Rules of Evidence, hearsay, pregnancy discrimination, Pregnancy Discrimination Act
A subordinate’s alleged statements concerning a decision-maker’s reasons for terminating a pregnancy discrimination plaintiff are not hearsay and therefore admissible, the 7th Circuit has ruled in reversing a summary judgment.
PACER and AOL records ruled hearsay, inadmissible at trial
Published: September 16, 2011
Tags: AOL, Federal Rules of Evidence, hearsay, identity theft, PACER
PACER and AOL records linking a defendant to a mail fraud scheme contained double hearsay that rendered the evidence inadmissible at trial, the 10th Circuit has ruled.
Hearsay admissible to support injunction
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: November 17, 2010
Tags: Federal Rules of Evidence, hearsay
Hearsay testimony was admissible to support the issuance of a preliminary injunction in a federal wage dispute between New York City and its police officers, the 2nd Circuit has ruled in affirming judgment.
‘Other employee’ evidence inadmissible in age-bias case
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: November 16, 2010
Tags: age discrimination, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Federal Rules of Evidence
An employment discrimination plaintiff could not introduce evidence that five co-workers had also experienced adverse actions because of their age, the 10th Circuit has ruled.
Lawyers grapple with gaps in inadvertent disclosure rule
By:
David Frank
Published: August 19, 2010
Tags: Federal Rules of Evidence, inadvertent disclosure, rule 502
Nearly two years after Congress enacted an evidentiary rule aimed at protecting lawyers who mistakenly turn over privileged materials during discovery, practitioners say they are still struggling with critical aspects of the measure.
Defendant’s MySpace information inadmissible
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: May 12, 2010
Tags: Federal Rules of Evidence, MySpace
Prosecutors could not introduce the contents of a defendant’s MySpace page to prove that he committed a string of bank robberies, the 11th Circuit has ruled.
Google search didn’t violate evidentiary rules
By:
Correy Stephenson
Published: March 25, 2010
Tags: Federal Rules of Evidence, Google
A U.S. District Court judge did not violate the Federal Rules of Evidence when he performed a Google search to research rain hats in a supervised release revocation proceeding, the 2nd Circuit has ruled.
