Morgan Stanley becomes Morgan Stainly Ruining the image of Morgan Stanley through unnecessary sanctions

Adverse inference instruction for “thwarting” discovery leads to $1.45 billion jury award In Coleman (Parent) Holdings, Inc. v. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., 2005 WL (Fla. Cir. Ct. Mar. 1, 2005), a Florida court issued an adverse inference instruction against Morgan Stanley for overwriting s, failing to timely process hundreds of backup tapes, and failing to produce relevant s with their attachments. Relying on that instruction, a jury awarded a total of $1.45 billion in damages against Morgan Stanley. In Coleman (Parent) Holdings, Inc. v. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., 2005 WL (Fla. Cir. Ct. Mar. 1, 2005), a Florida court issued an adverse inference instruction against Morgan Stanley for overwriting s, failing to timely process hundreds of backup tapes, and failing to produce relevant s with their attachments. Relying on that instruction, a jury awarded a total of $1.45 billion in damages against Morgan Stanley.

Excessive amounts of unnecessary data No other investment banking company is asked to perform such a great task No other investment banking company is asked to perform such a great task To produce all documents would be an impossible task To produce all documents would be an impossible task Produced documents the company felt was relevant Produced documents the company felt was relevant It is possible to miss data and make mistakes, regardless of how thorough a search is It is possible to miss data and make mistakes, regardless of how thorough a search is

Software Errors Software errors caused the searches of e- mails to be hyper case-sensitive, resulting in a failure to capture all s. Software errors caused the searches of e- mails to be hyper case-sensitive, resulting in a failure to capture all s. A script error prevented the insertion of some s into the archive. A script error prevented the insertion of some s into the archive.

Who Conducts Retrieval? Requesting party usually prohibited direct access Requesting party usually prohibited direct access Confidentiality & privilege barriers to examination of irrelevant matters Confidentiality & privilege barriers to examination of irrelevant matters Requesting party representative sometimes present & may help design search method Requesting party representative sometimes present & may help design search method Increasingly, Neutral Third Party service provider used if production is complex or extensive Increasingly, Neutral Third Party service provider used if production is complex or extensive (Bagby class slides Unit 8)

Third Party Help Court should have ordered a third party come in and assist with the discovery requests because of the enormous amount of data being searched. Court should have ordered a third party come in and assist with the discovery requests because of the enormous amount of data being searched.

From WestLaw Morgan Stanley continued throughout the trial to state how the searches could only be conducted at an enormous cost and would be fruitless because there were not backup tapes with from 1997 to Morgan Stanley continued throughout the trial to state how the searches could only be conducted at an enormous cost and would be fruitless because there were not backup tapes with from 1997 to 1998.

Dilbert and EDD Destruction