The Newark Watershed Conservation & Development Corp. is seeking permission to examine electronic devices belonging to the law firm of Trenk, DiPasquale, Della Fera & Sodono.

The NWCDC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015, moved on Monday to compel a forensic analysis of devices belonging to Trenk DiPasquale and attorneys Elnardo Webster II and Jodi Luciani in connection with their representation of the agency from 2006 to 2012. The agency sought permission to examine the firm's devices because repeated requests for emails from Trenk DiPasquale, Webster and Luciani failed to bear fruit.

The agency said its request should be granted because billing records from the firm's representation of the NWCDC reference “many hundreds” of emails but only one such message has been produced in discovery. Trenk DiPasquale, Webster and Luciani have given no explanation for their failure to produce the emails, but the Watershed seeks to learn if they still exist or what happened to them, it said in its brief.