OPA October Free Lunch and Learn

Oklahoma Paralegal Association

“When Discovery Defiance Persists: Custodians, Court Orders, and Sanctions” – Part 2 of a Series
Part 2 begins after the defense has identified gaps in the plaintiff’s digital record. The harder problem is what happens next: custodians resist, business communications remain on personal devices and accounts, explanations shift, and promised follow-up produces only another partial answer. It is not necessary to have attended Part 1 in order to attend Part 2 and obtain educational value from the program. Using Breaking Code Silence v. McNamara as a case study, the program examines how a court-ordered ESI plan turned disputed sources and custodians into enforceable obligations. The plaintiff’s reliance on voluntary cooperation did not satisfy the ordered discovery process. Attendees learn how to document refusal, prove organizational control, escalate through counsel and the court, distinguish Rule 37(b) noncompliance from Rule 37(e) loss, and connect requested expenses to the misconduct that caused them.

Session Agenda: October-2026-Lunch-Learn-Flyer.png

Learning Objectives:

– Paralegals will learn to identify when a plaintiff organization has control over ESI held by officers, directors, employees, volunteers, or related custodians.
– Paralegals will learn to build a custodian-escalation process for personal email, phones, messaging apps, cloud accounts, and decentralized records. Attendees will also learn to translate a court-ordered ESI plan into concrete access, collection, validation, reporting, and follow-up obligations.
– Paralegals will learn to document the causal link between the plaintiff’s noncompliance and the conferences, motions, subpoenas, or recovery work it required.

CLE Hours = 1 Substantive