Charter Calls NY AG Requests in Internet Speeds Case Too Burdensome

Charter Communications protested New York's “unrealistic demands” in discovery in the state attorney general's lawsuit alleging the company deliberately misled customers about internet speeds. The AG told the New York Supreme Court last week that Charter wasn’t cooperating with discovery and was late to file objections (see 1707270025). In a Friday response, Charter said it filed objections several weeks ahead of an Aug. 10 deadline. Also, the company urged the court to keep a June 1 date to close discovery and reject the AG’s request to move up the deadline to Sept. 27 this year. "Plaintiff’s unrealistic demands reflect a failure to appreciate the burden of its own document requests and the reality of document production in cases involving large amounts of" electronically stored information (ESI), Charter wrote. “Plaintiff has served two sets of document requests including 27 separate requests (many with multiple subparts), nearly all of which demand the production of an extremely broad category of documents and records and some of which require data collection across millions of customers. There are literally terabytes of ESI … that are potentially responsive to the document requests, spread across more than 70 custodians in a broad range of distinct business units, spanning a timeframe of more than five years, from two separate companies that recently merged.”