IBM to respond why they prefer paper to electronic documents

Hi! I'm Peter Lindner, and I have a lawsuit against IBM for retaliating against me after I filed an EEOC complaint.

That case 06cv4751 is in Federal Court, SDNY (Southern District of NY).

Right now, IBM's lawyers are fighting me (that's right as of noon May 29 2009, I'm my own attorney) over what files I can get prior to the jury trial. Specifically, I asked IBM for their files in electronic format, which is a format that IBM is synonymous with. And, you guessed it, IBM does not want to give up their files except in paper form.

A magistrate judge is about to decide this next month, so here's what I wrote (I had a lawyer at the time) and on June 6, 2009, we can see how IBM responds. I wrote this paragraph:

Additionally, this motion is being made to compel that defendant [IBM] provide electronically stored information and further that such information be provided in metadata format. It is clear that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require that electronically stored information[ESI] be provided. Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1), parties may obtain discovery regarding any unprivileged matter relevant to the claim or defense of any party, as long as the discovery “appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.”The discovery of electronically stored information is specifically addressed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 34(a), as amended effective December 1, 2006, which allows a party to request that another party “produce and permit the party making the request ... to inspect, copy, test, or sample any ... electronically stored information.”

The federal judge ordered (on page 3, item 12) IBM and its lawyers Jackson Lewis until Friday, June 5 to respond to the 4 page document on discovery.