Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Range of Available Sanctions for Spoliation

From D'Onofrio v. SFX Sports Group, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86711 (D.D.C. Aug. 24, 2010):

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not contain a provision specifying a remedy for the failure to preserve evidence. The trial court, nevertheless, has a great deal of discretion in exercising its inherent powers to fashion an appropriate sanction, but because of their potency, such powers must be exercised with restraint. See Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. 32, 43-46, 111 S. Ct. 2123, 115 L. Ed. 2d 27 (1991) (finding that the inherent authority of the court should be exercised when an applicable rule or statute is "not up to the task."). Sanctions available to a court, under its inherent power, include dispositive sanctions, awards of attorneys' fees and expenses, contempt citations, disqualifications or suspensions of counsel, and drawing adverse evidentiary inferences or precluding the admission of evidence. Shepherd, 62 F.3d 1469 at 1475, 314 U.S. App. D.C. 137 (citing Gregory P. Joseph, Sanctions: The Federal Law of Litigation Abuse § 28(A) (2d ed. 1994)).

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