Health Law Alert: Take Steps to Prevent Spoliation When Using Electronic Records

Baker Donelson
Contact

Q. I am the local manager of a national laboratory. We just received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General seeking requisition forms, billing policies, and chargemaster information from the lab. What do we do? What is spoliation, and how do we prevent a charge of spoliation from being lodged against our company or practice?

A. Spoliation is the destruction or alteration of evidence or failure to preserve property for another’s use in litigation.1 In the aftermath of Enron and the Arthur Andersen document destruction scandal, many judges view spoliation akin to contempt and will punish offenders accordingly. For example, Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm recently imposed damages and costs of over $1 million on the defendants in a case in the District of Maryland.2 Judge Grimm even threatened to throw one of the defendants in jail for what he called a “truly extraordinary level of [spoliation].”

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations. Attorney Advertising.

© Baker Donelson

Written by:

Baker Donelson
Contact
more
less

PUBLISH YOUR CONTENT ON JD SUPRA NOW

  • Increased visibility
  • Actionable analytics
  • Ongoing guidance

Baker Donelson on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide