E-Discovery Drives $576K Costs Levied on Plaintiffs

For plaintiffs, the cost of losing a case is skyrocketing in antitrust and other complex, document-intensive litigation now that the federal courts are routinely approving hefty bills for e-discovery services in the standard taxation of costs.

Illustrating that trend is the recent decision by the clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to tax costs of more than $576,000 against the losing plaintiffs in In re Aspartame Antitrust Litigation.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs complained in a lengthy brief that the bills of costs were "nothing short of astronomical."

Attorneys Dianne M. Nast and Erin C. Burns of Roda Nast in Lancaster argued that the defense team was "apparently under the mistaken impression that plaintiffs are obligated to reimburse defendants for the entire cost of their document management and production protocols."

Nast and Burns led a team of plaintiffs lawyers who accused the three top manufacturers of aspartame of engaging in a price-fixing scheme.

But the trial judge ultimately dismissed the case after finding that the named plaintiffs' claims were time-barred and could not be salvaged on a theory of fraudulent concealment. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal in January 2011.

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Source: law.com
By: Shannon P. Duffy