Preserving Potentially Relevant Evidence

Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, whenever it can be
“reasonably anticipated” that an action will be filed, all parties have a
duty to preserve potentially relevant evidence. And “evidence” includes
all information, including not just hard copy documents but all
electronically stored information. Research the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence.

Your supervising attorney, Jack Jones, has asked you to write a Legal
Memorandum detailing the law firm’s obligation to preserve evidence in
each client’s case. Specifically, he would like to know (1) what types
of information are required to be preserved; (2) when does the duty to
begin preserving evidence start; (3) what steps are required of the law
firm to preserve evidence; and (4) what are the sanctions for failure to
preserve evidence? He also would like you to include as an attachment
to the memo, a sample letter that can be sent to clients which explains
their obligation to preserve evidence and prevent spoliation.