A lawyer who represents charities has been accused of destroying 16 years' worth of emails relating to a legal malpractice suit filed against him by principals of a defunct Edison fundraising company.

A motion in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey for spoliation and sanctions against Errol Copilevitz claims he instructed his firm's computer technician to “wipe” the hard drive of his computer in December 2009. The motion was filed Oct. 23 by the principals of Civic Development Group, who are suing Copilevitz and his law firm, Copilevitz & Canter of Kansas City, Missouri for malpractice.

Emails on his firm's network were backed up nightly, but once one gigabyte of emails accumulated on the server, the system moved them to Copilevitz's personal computer, according to the motion.