A
Texas
jury
in
a
civil
case
has
found
that
Consilio,
which
describes
itself
as
“the
global
leader”
in
e-discovery,
violated
a
Texas
computer
security
criminal
statute
when
it
accessed
the
plaintiff’s
computer
without
effective
consent.
The
jury
also
found
Consilio
negligent
in
downloading
and
destroying
10
years’
worth
of
emails
and
awarded
$50,000
in
damages
to
the
plaintiff,
Angelyn
Olson
of
Maine,
according
to
the
woman’s
attorneys
and
news
reports.
Asked
about
the
verdict,
a
spokesperson
for
Consilio
said,
“While
we
are
disappointed
in
this
verdict,
we
are
confident
we
followed
industry
best
practices
in
this
matter.”
According
to
Olson’s
lawyers,
J.
Robert
Miller
Jr.
and
Emily
Copeland
of
Miller
Copeland
in
Dallas,
Consilio
was
hired
in
a
Maine
case
in
which
Olson
was
a
party.
As
part
of
that
case,
her
lawyers
agreed
to
provide
Consilio
with
access
to
search
her
emails
based
on
a
small
number
of
search
terms.
Instead,
the
attorneys
say,
the
company
downloaded
all
of
Olson’s
emails
for
a
10-year
period,
including
ones
containing
medical,
counseling
and
financial
information,
Social
Security
numbers
and
attorney-client
privileged
materials.
When
notified
of
the
violation
of
the
search
agreement,
and
despite
written
notice
to
secure
all
the
emails,
Consilio
destroyed
them,
the
attorneys
say,
leaving
Olson’s
counsel
no
means
of
determining
what
Consilio
did
with
the
emails
or
with
whom
the
company
shared
them.
According
to
Olson’s
attorneys,
Consilio
defended
its
actions
with
the
assertion
that
it
had
been
impossible
to
do
the
search
as
it
had
agreed,
based
on
key
terms.
But
the
attorneys
say
that
another
e-discovery
company,
Epiq,
later
managed
to
do
the
search
in
accord
with
the
protocol.
Title
7,
Chapter
33
of
the
Texas
Penal
Code,
regarding
breach
of
computer
security,
makes
it
a
Class
B
misdemeanor
for
someone
to
knowingly
access
a
computer
without
the
owner’s
effective
consent.
In
the
Maine
case
in
which
the
e-discovery
had
occurred,
Olson
was
ordered
to
return
$300,000
to
a
retired
German
law
professor
after
allegedly
taking
advantage
of
his
dementia
and
mispending
some
of
his
money
while
serving
as
caretaker
of
his
summer
home,
according
to
a
report
in
the
Portland
Press
Herald.
Image
by
Gerd
Altmann
from
Pixabay.