McPeek v. Ashcroft
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
202 F.R.D. 31 (D.D.C. 2001)
Relevant factsFree
Steven McPeek (plaintiff), a Bureau of Prisons employee, filed a sexual-harassment complaint and later sued the federal government (defendant), his employer, claiming retaliation and humiliation from coworkers afterward. During discovery, McPeek moved to compel the Department of Justice to restore deleted emails still sitting on its backup tapes, and the DOJ objected that the remote chance of finding relevant material did not justify the enormous cost of the restoration.
IssueFree
Whether restoring all potentially relevant backed-up electronic data is necessary for discovery in every case.