Hard Drive Wiping Costs $79 Large

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Christopher Spizzirri

I previously discussed Beard v. Kates and have a brief update to report. First, a refresher:

Beard sued Kates for tortuous interference and asked the Court to impose sanctions on Kates for spoliation. Kates repeatedly reformatted his laptop’s hard drive, then replaced the drive (but kept it), then wiped the new drive on the eve of the hearing in which he was explicitly told he would be required to turn the laptop over. The Court awarded attorneys’ fees and imposed an adverse inference, and I opined "Kates should thank his lucky stars the Court decided to go easy on him."

Well, it wasn't that easy. In October, Vice Chancellor Parsons issued a letter decision setting the amount of attorneys' fees awarded to Plaintiffs: $76,906.80. Ouch!  Then again, that only comes out to about $26,000 per wipe.  Maybe Dr. Kates got a volume discount.

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