top of page

E.D. Tex.: Cloned Discovery from Another Case Is Improper


Last month, Magistrate Judge Caroline M. Craven issued a decision, Travelpass Group v. Caesars Entm't Corp., No. 5:18-cv-153-RWS-CMC, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26558 (E.D. Tex. Jan. 16, 2020) denying the Defendants' joint motion to compel Travelpass to produce documents it produced to the FTC and to Expedia in a separate arbitration case. These documents were already collected and reviewed on an electronic platform. Travelpass contested the Defendants' failure to specify search terms; custodian names; and date ranges for refining the FTC and Expedia productions in compliance with the discovery order, and stated that the production would be burdensome because different law firms handled the FTC and Expedia productions.

The E-Discovery order issued by the Court requires that parties make specific requests for email productions, and that requests for non-email ESI have proportional and reasonable limitations. Judge Craven concluded that the E-Discovery order covered email productions made in other case, and also stated that, "asking for all documents produced in another matter is not generally proper." Id. at *17. Cloned discovery is only permitted when the fact of the production of the documents in another case is relevant to the present case.

". . . the Court finds that an informal request that seeks wholesale duplicates of discovery produced in other litigation is improper as failing to make the requisite showing of relevance. Defendants are not entitled to the wholesale reproduction of all of the FTC Documents and Expedia Documents simply because there may be overlap between the issues in those cases and those in this case." Id. at *20.


Sean O'Shea has more than 20 years of experience in the litigation support field with major law firms in New York and San Francisco.   He is an ACEDS Certified eDiscovery Specialist and a Relativity Certified Administrator.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the owner and do not reflect the views or opinions of the owner’s employer.

If you have a question or comment about this blog, please make a submission using the form to the right. 

Your details were sent successfully!

© 2015 by Sean O'Shea . Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page