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How to Obtain Social Media Data for Defending Lawsuits

By Emily T. Acosta and Eric P. Conn
May 02, 2015

Obtaining social media user content under most circumstances is extremely difficult unless you use the correct strategy. Often, this will include relying on traditional discovery requests such as interrogatories, requests to produce and requests to admit. However, simply sending discovery requests without a basic understanding of the information available is a fool's errand. It is pivotal that a practitioner who wants to conduct formal discovery of social media user content understand how each site stores and communicates its data. Armed with information, the informed attorney may well reap huge rewards when engaging in digital discovery.

Requests for Admission and Production

Once a matter has moved to litigation, and investigation has shown that the claimant has one or more social media accounts, traditional discovery methods should be used to obtain the information housed in these accounts. Requests to produce should be developed, and should be targeted at specific information contained on the claimant's accounts. It is important to skip the generic request for “any and all” documents, and instead specify the types of photos, video or Snaps sought in order to avoid responses that assert the request is overly burdensome, overbroad or not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Note that each sample request to produce set forth below can be modified for use as a request for admission.

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