Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-4_05-cv-01620/USCOURTS-cand-4_05-cv-01620-2/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 350
Nature of Suit: Motor Vehicle Personal Injury
Cause of Action: 28:2671 Federal Tort Claims Act

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KEVIN V. RYAN (SBN 118321)

United States Attorney

JOANN M. SWANSON (SBN 88143)

Chief, Civil Division

JONATHAN U. LEE (SBN 148792)

Assistant United States Attorney

450 Golden Gate Avenue,10th Floor

San Francisco, California 94102-3495

Telephone: (415) 436-6909

Facsimile: (415) 436-6748

Email: jonathan.lee@usdoj.gov

Attorneys for Defendant USA

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

SHAWN LEE HILLER and STACEY 

HILLER

Plaintiff,

v.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and 

DOES 1 to 20

Defendant. 

 

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No. C 05-01620 SBA

E-FILING CASE

STIPULATION AND PROPOSED

ORDER REGARDING PRODUCTION

OF MIRROR IMAGE OF HARD DRIVE

OF PLAINTIFF’S COMPUTER 

SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL OF THE COURT, THE PARTIES HEREBY AGREE

TO THE FOLLOWING STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ORDER:

WHEREAS, Plaintiffs Shawn and Stacey Hiller brought this Federal Tort Claims Act

lawsuit alleging personal injuries resulting from a motor vehicle collision on February 24, 2004

involving a Jeep driven by Mr. Hiller and a tractor trailer truck operated by United States Postal

Service employee Reginald Jones;

WHEREAS, Plaintiffs seek substantial past and future economic and non-economic

damages and before this litigation made a claim for damages in excess of $6 million;

WHEREAS, in discovery, defendant served a request for all e-mail and other electronic

documents stored on plaintiffs’ personal computers that were relevant to the subject matter of

this litigation, and plaintiffs responded by producing hard copies of e-mail messages;

WHEREAS, in follow up discovery, defendant requested a mirror image of plaintiffs’

Case 4:05-cv-01620-SBA Document 39 Filed 06/19/06 Page 1 of 3
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STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ORDER

C 05-1620 SBA 2

personal computer hard drives, to which plaintiffs objected;

WHEREAS, after meeting and conferring regarding this disputed discovery issue, the

parties have resolved their differences as outlined herein and seek an order of the Court

confirming the terms of their compromise resolution.

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED as follows:

1. The parties have agreed to follow the protocol set forth in Playboy

Enterprises, Inc. v. Welles, 60 F. Supp. 2d 1050 (S.D. Cal. 1999).

2. Under the Playboy Enterprises protocol, the Court appoints an electronic

discovery expert (“Expert”), based upon the parties’ agreement, to create a

“mirror image” of the hard drive in question, in this case that of plaintiff

Shawn Lee Hiller. The parties agree that William Mann, Mann

Consulting, San Francisco will be the Expert.

3. The Expert will serve as an officer of the Court. Defendant will pay for 

the Expert’s services. Therefore, the attorney-client privilege that may

apply to the plaintiff’s hard drive is not waived. The Expert will sign the

protective order in effect in this case.

4. The parties agree that the Expert will perform the inspection within 5

business days of the Court’s entry of the proposed order below. Other than

the Expert, only plaintiffs and their attorney may be present during the

inspection. 

5. After making a copy of the hard drive, the Expert shall give the mirror

image, transferred onto a disk, to plaintiffs’ counsel.

6. Within seven days of the Expert’s inspection described in paragraph 4

above, Plaintiffs’ counsel will then produce any responsive documents or

communications from the mirror image and create a privilege log for any

withheld documents or communications. The parties agree that the

metadata for each document produced, such as the date created and date

last edited before the inspection, will be included in the production to

Case 4:05-cv-01620-SBA Document 39 Filed 06/19/06 Page 2 of 3
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STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ORDER

C 05-1620 SBA 3

defendant.

7. Plaintiffs’ counsel will be the sole custodian of and will retain the mirror

image disk and copies of all documents retrieved from the disk, throughout

the litigation.

8. If any documents cannot be retrieved from hard drive or the retrieved

materials constitute less than the whole of data on the hard drive, then

plaintiff’s counsel will submit a declaration to the Court not later than 7

days following the production described in paragraph 6 above, together

with a report signed by the expert explaining the limits of the retrieval

achieved.

9. The Parties agree that the Court will have jurisdiction over any disputes

arising from this stipulation and proposed order.

IT IS SO STIPULATED.

DATED: June 14, 2006 JONES, CLIFFORD, JOHNSON & JOHNSON

 /S/ 

J. Kevin Morrison

Attorney for Plaintiff

DATED: June 14, 2006 KEVIN V. RYAN

United States Attorney

 /S/ 

Jonathan U. Lee

Assistant United States Attorney

Attorneys for Defendants

PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, IT IS SO ORDERED:

DATED: __________________ _____________________________________

Honorable SAUNDRA B. ARMSTRONG

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

June 19, 2006

ELIZABETH D. LAPORTE 

U.S. MAGISTRATE JUDGE

U

NITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

IT IS SO ORDERED

Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte

Case 4:05-cv-01620-SBA Document 39 Filed 06/19/06 Page 3 of 3