Complex Lit Blog

Facebook Authentication — Third Party Posts Must Be Authenticated by More Than the Names of the Purported Authors Reflected on Each Posting

Dering v. State, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 2899 (Tex. Ct. App. Mar. 26, 2015): Taylor Dwayne Dering was indicted for aggravated sexual assault of an elderly person. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.021(a)(1)(A)(i) (West Supp. 2014). Appellant pleaded guilty to the offense and elected for the jury to assess punishment. The j ...

Facebook Authentication by Use of Street Names; Gang Terms, Photos, Artwork & Signs on Public Page +Similar Content on Private Pages & Circumstantial Evid — Music Downloaded from Sound Cloud Not Tied to Defendant or Gang Improperly Admitted for Truth

State v Gibson, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 1614 (Ohio Ct. App. May 1, 2015): {¶ 32} In his second assignment of error, appellant states: The trial court erred in allowing the introduction of prejudicial evidence by the state without the establishment of a proper foundation. A ...

State v Gibson, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 1614 (Ohio Ct. App. May 1, 2015): {¶ 32} In his second assignment of error, appellant states: The trial court erred in allowing the introduction of prejudicial evidence by the state without the…

Video Authentication — Surveillance Video Not Self-Authenticating, Particularly When Edited, Blurry and Shot from Significant Distance — Rule 59 Standards re Erroneous Evidentiary Ruling — Remittitur Standards

Leo v. L.I. RR, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56953 (S.D.N.Y. April 30, 2015): Plaintiff Brian Leo commenced this lawsuit under the Federal Employers Liability Act ("FELA"), 45 U.S.C. § 51 et seq., seeking recovery for physical and other injuries suffered while employed by the defendant Long Island Railroad Company ("LIRR" ...

Judicial Notice of Internet Evidence — Secretary of State Website Records — When Public Records Are Presumed Authentic and Trustworthy, Burden of Showing a Basis for Exclusion Falls on Opponent of the Evidence

Bank of Am., N.A. v. 04, Inc. (In re Owner Mgmt. Serv., LLC), 2015 Bankr. LEXIS 1468 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. April 29, 2015): Well-settled Ninth Circuit precedent specifically deals with evidentiary objections at the summary judgment stage. In general, at the summary [*11] judgment stage, the Court does not focus on the admissibil ...

Text Messages Insufficiently Authenticated by Testimony That Proponent Identified Owner of Phone from Which Texts Were Sent at an Uncertain Later Time and That He Couldn’t Recall How He Accessed or Copied the Messages

Barker v. Computer Sci. Corp., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39994 (E.D. Va. Mar. 27, 2015): Plaintiff Damien Barker ("Plaintiff" or "Barker") began his employment with Computer Science Corporation ("CSC") in February 2011 as a systems analyst. (Dkt. No. 77-6 at 2-3). In this position, he provided technical suppo ...

Facebook and Twitter Authentication — Maryland Rethinks Griffith and Adopts Circumstantial Approach to Social Media Evidence — What Is a Social Media Cracker?

Sublet v. State, 2015 Md. LEXIS 289 (Md. Ct. App. April 23, 2015): The rapid rise of social networking websites,1 themselves a branch of social media,2 once again [*2] gives us cause to explore the authentication of documents related to this genre, under Maryland Rule 5-901, which prov ...

Sublet v. State, 2015 Md. LEXIS 289 (Md. Ct. App. April 23, 2015): The rapid rise of social networking websites,1 themselves a branch of social media,2 once again [*2] gives us cause to explore the authentication of documents related to…

Admission of Printouts of Text Messages Forwarded from One Phone to Another in Pieces for Printing OK under Best Evidence Rule — Forwarded Text = Duplicate — Absence of Original Excused Due to Inability to Print It

People v. Davis, 2015 Ill. App. Unpub. LEXIS 885 (Ill. Ct. App. April 24, 2015): 1 Held: The trial court's admission into evidence of a forwarded text message did not violate hearsay or best evidence rules and, accordingly, did not constitute plain error. 2 Following a bench trial in 2013, defendant Timothy Davis ...

Judicial Notice of Internet Evidence — Corporate Website to Ascertain the Service It Offers — Software Tool Used by Testifying Expert Is Not Itself an Expert and Need Not Be Disclosed under 26(a) — Akin to Assistant to Expert

Capitol Records, LLC v. Escape Media Grp., Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183098 (S.D.N.Y. May 28, 2014), adopted, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38007 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 25, 2015): In 1999, a teenage college dropout finished writing software for an internet service called Napster that would allow people to swap music stored on their compute ...

Text Authentication by Recipient That She Knows Number to Be Sender’s, That He Called Her between Texts and by Contents: No One But Sender Had Motive to Threaten or Complain Recipient Had Snitched Just before Sender’s Trial

Butler v. State, 2015 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 491 (Tex. Ct. Crim. App. April 22, 2015): Appellant was convicted of the aggravated kidnapping of his girlfriend, Ashley Salas. On direct appeal, he complained that the trial court admitted certain text messages into evidence that Appellant claimed were not properly authenticated. Th ...

Butler v. State, 2015 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 491 (Tex. Ct. Crim. App. April 22, 2015): Appellant was convicted of the aggravated kidnapping of his girlfriend, Ashley Salas. On direct appeal, he complained that the trial court admitted certain text …

Spoliation — Erroneous Adverse Inference Instruction Limited to Damages Does Not Require New Trial on Liability or on Unaffected Damages Award

Blue Sky Travel and Tours, LLC v. Aqeel, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 5166 (4th Cir. Mar. 31, 2015): In this appeal concerning the breach of an oral contract, we consider whether the district court erred in denying the defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law asserting a defense of the statute of frauds. We also consider

Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Facebook Authentication — Third Party Posts Must Be Authenticated by More Than the Names of the Purported Authors Reflected on Each Posting

Facebook Authentication by Use of Street Names; Gang Terms, Photos, Artwork & Signs on Public Page +Similar Content on Private Pages & Circumstantial Evid — Music Downloaded from Sound Cloud Not Tied to Defendant or Gang Improperly Admitted for Truth

Video Authentication — Surveillance Video Not Self-Authenticating, Particularly When Edited, Blurry and Shot from Significant Distance — Rule 59 Standards re Erroneous Evidentiary Ruling — Remittitur Standards

Judicial Notice of Internet Evidence — Secretary of State Website Records — When Public Records Are Presumed Authentic and Trustworthy, Burden of Showing a Basis for Exclusion Falls on Opponent of the Evidence

Text Messages Insufficiently Authenticated by Testimony That Proponent Identified Owner of Phone from Which Texts Were Sent at an Uncertain Later Time and That He Couldn’t Recall How He Accessed or Copied the Messages

Facebook and Twitter Authentication — Maryland Rethinks Griffith and Adopts Circumstantial Approach to Social Media Evidence — What Is a Social Media Cracker?

Admission of Printouts of Text Messages Forwarded from One Phone to Another in Pieces for Printing OK under Best Evidence Rule — Forwarded Text = Duplicate — Absence of Original Excused Due to Inability to Print It

Judicial Notice of Internet Evidence — Corporate Website to Ascertain the Service It Offers — Software Tool Used by Testifying Expert Is Not Itself an Expert and Need Not Be Disclosed under 26(a) — Akin to Assistant to Expert

Text Authentication by Recipient That She Knows Number to Be Sender’s, That He Called Her between Texts and by Contents: No One But Sender Had Motive to Threaten or Complain Recipient Had Snitched Just before Sender’s Trial

Spoliation — Erroneous Adverse Inference Instruction Limited to Damages Does Not Require New Trial on Liability or on Unaffected Damages Award

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The Word “Include” May Be A Word of Limitation As Opposed to a Word of Enlargement, Depending on the Context

Spoliation/Sanctions: “A Party Does Not Spoliate Evidence When, Without Notice Of The Evidence’s Potential Relevance, It Destroys The Evidence According To Its Policy Or In The Normal Course Of Its Business” (Good Quote)

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