2.75 Million Dollar Fine - Spoliation of E-mail

United States v. Philip Morris, USA, Inc., No. CIV.A.99-2496, 2004 WL 1627252 (D.D.C. July 21 2004). The company failed to follow the preservation order and destroyed e-mail for over two years. A number of high ranking officers who were to be called as witnesses did not retain their e-mail under a "print and retain" policy. The Court ordered that the defendant was precluded from presenting any fact witness who had failed to preserve relevant records and was ordered to pay $2.75 million in fines for its spoliation of e-mail.

Comments

[Molly George]

When Arthur Andersen engaged in spoliation by shredding documents, do you know if any of those documents were retrieved in electronic format? It would seem to me that paper shredding is a meaningless means of spoliation since most documents are created and stored electronically.

Thanks for your response.