[pverghese]

> The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure required Google to suspend its auto-delete practices in mid-2019, when the company reasonably anticipated this litigation. Google did not.

How the hell is this a thing. I can understand if they did this post litigation being filed then it would be a problem.

How is a company supposed to anticipate when and where the government is going to file charges and keep records for them waiting.

If the government was concerned they should have filed the lawsuit sooner not in 2020

[IncRnd]

It's very much a thing. The question is whether Google in preparation for an upcoming court action decided to start throwing records away. People don't get away with that before a divorce, before selling a company, or in any other situation.

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

In October 2019 the DoJ served Google with a Civil Investigative Demand asking for documents relating to its ad tech business and various other subjects. A month earlier, in September 2019, attorneys general for 49 states announced an investigation into Google's ad tech business, led by Texas AG Ken Paxton.

Would it be reasonable for Google to have anticipated this litigation in 2019 after those events.

[dragonwriter]

> How is a company supposed to anticipate when and where the government is going to file charges and keep records for them waiting.

It is not just the government, evidence preservations rules attach for any relevant documents at the point where litigation is either initiated, or is, or reasonably should be, anticipated, regardless of whether the government is a party to the regulation. In the specific case of government action, knowledge of existence and subject matter of a government investigation generally provides a basis on which litigation on the subject should be reasonably anticipated (ditto with, e.g., an explicit threat of litigation by a private party. This is well-established law.

[JumpCrisscross]

If you and I have a private dispute, you sue, and I tell your lawyers I shredded everything related to the case because I routinely shred my papers at the end of each month, even if that's true, I'm probably going to settle for more than had I maintained records. (Assuming I wasn't blatantly lying.) The shred-it-all approach has its upsides. But it also comes with liability.

[pverghese]

After you sue, if you shred then you are in trouble. How do you anticipate what documents you need and when a legal suit is going to be filed by an unrelated party