Morgan Stanley E-Discovery Case Reversed
Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal Law Blog is a story about the reversal by an appellate court in Florida of a 2005 jury verdict of over $1 billion in damages against Morgan Stanley in connection with its "supporting role" in the purchase of a company. However, most commentators agree that the award, which included punitive damages, was largely a result of the bungling of the electronic discovery issues which resulted in adverse rulings and instructions to the jury that made it almost impossible to avoid a verdict against Morgan Stanley. In several seminars I have given on electronic discovery, I have used the trial court result in this case as a cautionary tale that is a great example of the need for lawyers and clients to have a firm grasp of the electronic discovery aspects of a case.
