The Jan. 31 decision of the Appellate Division, First Department, in Voom HD Holdings v. EchoStar Satellite LLC, 600292/08, written by Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels (See Profile), was the first by a New York state appellate court to apply the standard for spoliation of electronic evidence set forth by Southern District Judge Shira Scheindlin (See Profile) in 2003 in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 220 FRD 212.
The Zubulake standard holds that “once a party reasonably anticipates litigation, it must suspend its routine document retention/destruction policy and put in place a ‘litigation hold’ to ensure the preservation of relevant documents.”
It is “harmonious with New York precedent in the traditional discovery context, and provides litigants with sufficient certainty as to the nature of their obligations in the electronic discovery context and when those obligations are triggered,” Justice Manzanet-Daniels wrote. She was joined by Justices Peter Tom (See Profile), David B. Saxe (See Profile), James M. Catterson (See Profile) and Karla Moskowitz (See Profile).