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Unlocking the door to automaker databases: using the discovery rules and helpful case law, you can gain valuable electronic information that defendants would prefer you never see.

Article Excerpt
Anyone who visits Dearborn, Michigan, will find the blue Ford Motor Co. logo prominently displayed on the company's world headquarters, the Henry Ford Museum, and many other buildings and landmarks in the area. But the most complete record of Ford-related documents is hidden--in an unmarked building behind a barbed-wired security gate with a numerical access code that changes daily.

Inside that nondescript building is the world's most powerful nongovernment computer server, which supports Ford's global intranet. This system connects the computers of more than 200,000 of Ford's 300,000 employees worldwide. The intranet gives them high-speed access to engineering and other data; before this information was available online, researchers would have had to pore over reams of documents at the company's storage facility in Highland Park, Michigan.

In the business world, Ford boasts about its intranet and employees' ease of access to company information. However, when Ford's data are requested by plaintiffs in litigation, access to the server is hindered by the barbed wire, security codes, and false claims of privilege crafted by the company's office of general counsel.

According to WebMaster magazine, the database developers at Ford

took care to design the intranet so that it would integrate easily with existing applications available on most desktops.... Users can pull employee contact information from the company phone book and meeting calendars and other information from multiple company databases, and they can access online libraries and a Web Center of Excellence, which contains information on best practices, standards, recommendations, and lessons learned.... But the intranet's real strength is its ability to help users gather a wealth of information that would previously require several phone calls or a library visit. (1)

Most automakers' documents are stored as electronic files in a computerized database, or are identified in computerized indexes that can be accessed with search engines typically used on the public Internet. Although the federal discovery and evidence rules, as well as case law, have extended discovery to computer databases kept in the ordinary course of business, Ford and other automakers continue to unlawfully deny litigants access to these systems.

The courts have condemned Ford's discovery abuse tactics for at least 30 years. The story is told in part in Parrett v. Ford Motor Co., in which a federal district court held that Ford's responses to discovery were false and evasive. (2)

General Motors Corp. has a similar track record of discovery abuse. For example, in a 1993 case, the plaintiff was granted a new trial after GM failed to...

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