Did Court Provide Clarity or Confusion on Spoliation?
In Georgia, spoliation refers to the destruction or failure to preserve evidence that is relevant to contemplated or pending litigation. A finding of spoliation gives rise to a rebuttable presumption that the subject evidence was harmful to the spoliator. For a party to pursue this remedy, the evidence must be "necessary" to the litigation and the spoliating party must have possessed a duty to preserve the evidence.
August 03, 2015 at 05:00 AM
4 minute read
In Georgia, spoliation refers to the destruction or failure to preserve evidence that is relevant to contemplated or pending litigation. A finding of spoliation gives rise to a rebuttable presumption that the subject evidence was harmful to the spoliator. For a party to pursue this remedy, the evidence must be “necessary” to the litigation and the spoliating party must have possessed a duty to preserve the evidence.
In a June 29 decision, Phillips v. Harmon, the Georgia Supreme Court sought to clarify the triggering of a party's duty to preserve. Whether the duty to preserve exists is often the critical inquiry in the spoliation analysis. The implication of this duty has received extensive case law interpretation and, consequently, has experienced considerable evolution and refinement.
The duty to preserve is triggered upon a party's notice of “contemplated or pending litigation.” Silman v. Assoc. Bellemeade, 286 Ga. 27 (2009). The Georgia Supreme Court in Silman elected not to expand the duty to preserve, finding “the phrase 'potential for litigation' from Baxley refers to litigation that is actually contemplated or pending, and nothing more.” This was a notable finding because, in Baxley v. Hakiel Indus. Inc., the Georgia Supreme Court suggested the mere 'potential for litigation' could implicate the duty to preserve. 647 S.E.2d (Ga. 2007).
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