Helmert v. Butterball, LLC

Helmert and others (plaintiffs) sued their former employer Butterball (defendant) under the FLSA and Arkansas law for unpaid time spent donning, doffing, and sanitizing protective gear. The plaintiffs sought to compel Butterball to run 70 search terms across the electronically stored information (ESI) of 43 employees over 10 years. Butterball objected that the request was overly burdensome, costly, and unlikely to yield admissible evidence.

Whether a motion to compel discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b) will be granted where the information sought is likely to lead to relevant information and would not impose an undue burden or significant cost.