The Court denied Plaintiff’s motion for a discovery order that would require Defendant to allow a forensic expert to search defendant’s computer systems, network servers and databases and would require defendant to provide back up tapes of certain information systems to include data for the last nine years.  The Court found that FRCP Rule 34(a) does not give the requesting party the routine right of direct access to the opposing party’s computer.

The Court further ordered the parties to meet and confer concerning (1) the specification of the form in which electronically stored information is to be produced and whether some of the documents produced in hard copy form are not reasonably usable for the purpose for which they were requested since they cannot be searched for meta-data; and, (2) whether certain deleted information requested by Plaintiff is both relevant and retrievable.