Federal Court Penalizes Illinois School District for Violating "Litigation Hold" Requirements 

A federal court has sanctioned a local school district for failing to properly produce and preserve emails in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP"), even though the school district had produced sufficient documents in response to the plaintiff's discovery requests.

Under the FRCP, a federal court may punish a party to a lawsuit for failing to preserve relevant documents. A motion for sanctions can be made when a party either destroys or fails to preserve evidence in its control that it could reasonably expect to be relevant to a potential lawsuit.

In Jones v. Bremen High School District 228, No. 08 C 3548 (ND Il. 2010), a district secretary, filed a claim against the school district alleging discrimination based on race and disability. After the school district received notice of the claim, it directed three employees to go through their emails and save whatever they thought may be relevant to the case. 

The employees made the selections without the guidance of legal counsel. Moreover, although the document retention policy posted on the school district's website stated that the district preserved all evidence of its activities, in practice, the district's back-up system permanently deleted all deleted emails every thirty days.

The court in Jones explained that the school had a duty to preserve all potentially relevant documents once it received notice of Jones's discrimination charges. Additionally, the court found that the school breached its preservation duty when it failed to ask all employees who dealt with Jones to save potentially relevant emails. 

The court also emphasized the importance of consulting legal counsel when selecting documents to preserve, describing the school's failure to do so as "unreasonable" and "improper." The court was further troubled by the discrepancy between the school's document retention policy posted on its website and its actual practices.

As such, the court imposed sanctions on the school district, ordering the district to pay for Jones's sanctions motion, requiring the jury to be informed of the school's failure to preserve documents, and permitting Jones to question witnesses regarding the deleted emails. 

Any school district facing actual or potential federal litigation is faced with "litigation hold" requirements, and failure to meet these requirements can result in financial penalty and a compromised defense. Contact Rob Swain regarding your litigation hold issues.