Of note from Hunton Andrews Kurth:
On November 6, 2024, a Texas state district court jury found that a large e-discovery vendor violated Title 7, Chapter 33 of the Texas Penal Code, which provides that accessing a computer without its owner’s permission is a Class B misdemeanor. This case highlights the importance for e-discovery vendors of considering data privacy and security requirements in the course of discovery proceedings.
The court awarded $50,000 in damages against the vendor, finding that the vendor ignored e-discovery protocol when accessing an individual’s personal email account to search for emails containing 12 search terms dating back to 2012. As a result, the vendor downloaded more than 34,000 emails from the individual’s email account that included sensitive information such as medical data, Social Security numbers and attorney-client privileged information. According to reports, if the vendor had not deviated from the e-discovery protocol, only 600 relevant emails would have been in scope of discovery.
Read more at Privacy & Security Information Law Blog.