How to Avoid Spoliation Sanctions

Federal and state case law place a duty on parties to preserve relevant evidence once litigation is reasonably anticipated. This duty to preserve applies to all types of evidence, whether in electronic or hard copy form. As electronically stored information (ESI) continues to emerge as a primary vessel of evidence, parties are faced with increasingly difficult decisions about the extent to which ESI must be preserved, how to go about preserving ESI, and at what cost.