Bankr. N.D. Ohio: Bankruptcy Filing Not a Trigger

Last week, Judge Arthur I. Harris issued a decision, In re LaGroux, No. 17-40198, 2019 Bankr. LEXIS 1814 (Bankr. N.D. Ohio June 11 , 2019) denying discovery sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37 for failure to preserve text messages.  He ruled that a bankruptcy filing is not a basis for litigation to be anticipated for the putposes of Rule 37.  “The Court believes that the duty to preserve did not arise until after attempts to resolve the valuation of LaGroux's interest proved unsuccessful.”. Id. at *7.