Digital Evidence Group LLC (DEG) provides litigation support services from complaint to verdict. The services we provide include court reporting, legal videography, and trial consulting. Our technological tools and expertise provide attorneys with a competitive advantage to win trials. Owned and managed by Curt Evans, Esq., David Wiseman and Paul Hugo, DEG brings a unique skill set and arsenal of experience to trial. We create efficient, persuasive, and powerful presentations.

Latest News - DEG Client Awarded $48.5 Million in Insurance Dispute

A nine-member federal jury unanimously awarded $48.5 million to Sempra Energy following a two-week federal trial against the insurance broker Marsh USA Inc. Digital Evidence Group managed all aspects of the courtroom presentation of the evidence.

Marsh was charged with breach of contract after a political-risk policy failed to cover an investment that was affected by a change in government policy in Argentina. "Sempra thought it bought the right kind of insurance policy," said Kirk Pasich, a Los Angeles-based partner at Dickstein Shapiro, who was lead counsel for Sempra. "Marsh made a mistake and the jury made them pay for the mistake."

The lawsuit stemed from an insurance policy Sempra purchased through Marsh to cover investments in two natural gas companies in Argentina. The investments were indexed to the U.S. dollar, shielding Sempra from any devaluation in the Argentine peso, but Argentina's government set aside the indexing in 2002.

Sempra’s insurance company, AIG’s National Union, refused to provide coverage, alleging that the policy did not kick in as a result of the government's action. In 2006, an arbitrator concluded the same thing, denying Sempra’s $48.5 million claim.

Sempra alleged that Marsh was fully aware of the specifics of its investment in the South American country and that it wanted coverage for the scenario that occurred. Accordingly, because the insurance policy was bought through Marsh, Sempra hired Pasich to bring suit against Marsh for professional negligence, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract.

According to Sempra and its lawyers at Dickstein Shapiro, a more appropriate insurance policy was available but Marsh steered it to a policy that did not fully cover the company’s investments. The Los Angeles jury agreed with the assessment.

$15 Million Awarded to Remedy Contract Breach Due to Racial Discrimination

A federal jury ordered DynCorp International, a government contractor, to pay more than $15 million to a former minority-owned subcontractor, Worldwide Network Services (WWNS). With demonstrative exhibits, an extensive database of trial exhibits, and video clips prepared and displayed in the courtroom by Digital Evidence Group, WWNS's attorneys from Akin Gump persuaded the jury that DynCorp breached its contract and racially discriminated against WWNS.

In 1993, WWNS was founded and operated by two African Americans as a small shop providing technology and telecommunications services to area businesses. In 2003, it became a subcontractor to DynCorp, and its revenue grew from $500,000 to $50 million a year.

WWNS filed suit in October 2006, after DynCorp ended a relationship with it to provide services in Iraq and Afghanistan. In WWNS's place, DynCorp selected a company not owned by minorities and the two then hired many of WWNS's employees.

WWNS said it was left with millions of dollars in outstanding invoices and nearly collapsed in the aftermath. WWNS also alleged that DynCorp forced the company off the contract as part of a pattern of racial discrimination, listing several examples, including the use of a slur to describe a WWNS employee and an October 2006 party hosted by one of DynCorp's top executives shortly after the DynCorp/WWNS relationship had soured. At the party, a mocking letter purporting to be from the black president of WWNS was read in Ebonics, and a T-shirt was distributed with the imprint "I brought down WWNS and all I got was this lousy T-shirt". WWNS claimed its employees were increasingly subjected to racial epithets, banned from meetings and in some cases forced to leave Iraq. WWNS also claimed DynCorp used WWNS's status as a small, minority-owned firm to help win the lucrative government contracts.

DynCorp, however, said a contract with WWNS was not renewed because of the subcontractor's poor performance.

The jury awarded WWNS $5 million plus interest in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages. Based on an earlier ruling, Judge Gerald Lee had already ordered DynCorp to pay $2 million.

DEG client Merit prevails with finding of willful patent infringement

Merit Industries, Inc., a worldwide leader in touchscreen entertainment devices, worked with Dickstein Shapiro and Digital Evidence Group to obtain a favorable jury verdict in a patent infringement case involving several patents. After a 2 week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania before Judge Savage, the jury returned a verdict of roughly $1.5 million, and found that defendant JVL had willfully infringed, allowing Judge Savage to treble the damages and award attorney's fees to Merit.

Digital Evidence Group assisted Merit and its counsel in displaying documents, video clips from depositions, and video screens from dozens of tabletop video game devices the defendant had alleged were prior art invalidating Merit's patents. "I believe it was helpful for the jury to understand how these video games operated. Having experts testify while using the games, with the screen being broadcast throughout the courtroom, was much more effective than trying to explain their operation by just using figures and drawings from the patents," said Curt Evans from DEG.

After a short afternoon deliberation, Merit’s chief competitor was found by the jury to have willfully violated U.S. patent laws by selling products that use Merit’s patented technologies. Merit Entertainment is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and develops and manufactures touchscreen video game machines. With an installed base of over 250,000 touchscreen games accounting for over 4 billion plays per year, Merit is the worldwide leader in touchscreen entertainment devices.

Attorneys for Merit were Ken Brothers and Gary Hoffman, head of Dickstein Shapiro’s Intellectual Property Practice, with whom DEG also worked to secure a $500 million patent infringement verdict in Saffran v. Boston Scientific.

$500 Million Patent Infringement Verdict, Among Largest in United States

Digital Evidence Group's client was successful in receiving a jury verdict of $431,867,351 for patent infringement, one of the largest ever in the United States. The Court also awarded $69.4 million in pre-judgment interest. Bruce N. Saffran, M.D., Ph.D., had accused Boston Scientific of infringing his patent covering drug-eluting arterial stents. The jury found Boston Scientific's Taxus Express and Taxus Liberte stents infringed Dr. Saffran's patent. The Taxus stents are sold to provide directional drug delivery to an arterial wall once implanted, reducing restenosis, or the re-closure of an artery by scar tissue. The drug delivered, Paclitaxel (a common chemotherapy drug), is part of a layer coated on a bare metal stent with the polymer SIBS. Consistent with Boston Scientific's representations to the FDA that Paclitaxel is not washed into the bloodstream, the jury determined that the layer, as claimed by Dr. Saffran, delivered the hydrophobic Paclitaxel directionally to the hydrophobic arterial wall.

Curt Evans, a DEG principal, commented, "Digital Evidence Group is proud to have provided trial consulting services to Dr. Saffran and the attorneys at Dickstein Shapiro and the Albittron Firm. For this patent infringement case in the Eastern District of Texas, the Court only allocated 12 hours per party to try the entire case, so it was extremely important that the presentation to the jury was clear and smoothly run. As a result of long hours preparing documents and witness video, the team did an amazing job of clearly presenting a complex case to a jury in a short period of time. When you come well prepared, the jury picks up on that, and it bolsters the credibility of the arguments you're making."

The jury determined a reasonably royalty to be 8% of Boston Scientific's U.S. sales, and 6% on stents made in the US but sold internationally. The case, Bruce N. Saffran, M.D., Ph.D. v. Boston Scientific Corporation, was heard by Judge T. John Ward in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Dr. Saffran was represented by Dickstein Shapiro and Albritton Law Firm of Longview, TX.

DEG in NBA Arbitration between NY Knicks and Coach Larry Brown

DEG participated in an arbitration to resolve a contract dispute between Larry Brown and the New York Knicks, held at the offices of the National Basketball Association before Commissioner David Stern. Cablevision, parent company of the Knicks, revealed in its third-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the dispute has been settled, with Mr. Brown receiving $18.5 million. The remainder of the settlement terms remain confidential. Commissioner Stern also ordered all parties not to comment publicly, as reported by the New York Times.

$52.4 Million Jury Verdict for LG Philips May Be Tripled

On July 28, 2006, a federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware awarded $52.4 million in damages to Digital Evidence Group's client LG Philips LCD Co. after finding infringement of a patent relating to the manufacture of LCD panels. The defendants were Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd., Taiwan's third-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, its parent Tatung Co. and ViewSonic.

The jury also found that the infringement was willful, giving U.S. District Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. discretion to triple damages to more than $150 million.

Digital Evidence Group provided many services on this case including court reporting for a fast-track deposition schedule, legal videography, and MPEG-1 video encoding and synchronization of video to transcripts. After discovery closed, DEG was hired for courtroom and war room equipment procurement and management, on-site trial consulting and video clip creation, "hot seat" trial presentation, and graphics and 3-D animation creation and support. The graphics and animations presented by DEG helped the jury understand complex LCD panel technology and return a verdict of willful patent infringement. Lead counsel for LG Philips were Gaspare Bono and Tyler Goodwyn from McKenna Long & Aldridge in Washington, DC.

The case is LG Philips LCD Co. Ltd. v. Tatung Co., Tatung Co. of America, Inc., Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. and ViewSonic Corp., 05CV292, U.S. District Court, Wilmington, Delaware.

Applied Medical Award Enhanced to $54 Million

The U.S. District Court in Orange County, CA, upheld a jury verdict that Tyco Unit U.S. Surgical Corporation had willfully infringed a patent owned by Applied Medical Resources Corp. The patent was on a medical device known as a trocar, used by surgeons to perform laparoscopic surgery. Because of the jury's willfulness finding, the court, through Judge Cormac Carney, increased the $43.5 million jury verdict by almost $11 million. Digital Evidence Group assisted Applied Medical in trying the case.

Knobbe Martens announced the enhanced damages in October 2004. See http://www.kmob.com/Pages/news_court_upholds_verdict.htm

Applied Medical Awarded $43.5 Million, With Possibility of Being Tripled

Digital Evidence Group proudly announces it assisted its client Applied Medical Resources Corp., in procuring a jury verdict of $43.5 million. Trial counsel at Knobbe Martens persuaded an Orange County, California, jury to find that $43.5 million was a just award because a Tyco Unit, U.S. Surgical Corporation, had infringed Applied's patent. The patent was on a medical device known as a trocar. The jury also found that the infringement was willful, allowing U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney to triple the damages and to award Applied Medical its attorney fees. He has set a September 20, 2004 hearing to decide those issues.

"I'm happy to help clients present their cases more clearly," said Paul Hugo, the Digital Evidence Group consultant. "I enjoy allowing attorneys to concentrate on effective advocacy, while I handle all of the technical details. I follow the attorney's lead to create a seamless presentation, and Judges seem to really appreciate our role in case preparation and presentation."

For another account of the award, see http://www.knobbe.com/Pages/news_applied_medical.htm

DEG Client Awarded $134.5 Million

Digital Evidence Group is pleased to announce a significant victory for its client Masimo (www.masimo.com), represented by Knobbe Martens Olson and Bear in Irvine, CA. A jury awarded $134,528,960 finding four of Masimo's patents relating to pulse oximetry to be infringed, and that the infringement was willful. Masimo was also found not to infringe its opponent's patent.

Digital Evidence Group helped the attorneys educate the jury about complex issues of patent law and Masimo's Signal Extraction Technology by equiping the courtroom for an electronic trial, by preparing and using digitized deposition testimony, and by coordinating electronic display and annotation of trial exhibits. The case is captioned MallincKrodt, Puritan Bennet, Nellcor v. Masimo Corporation, and was tried in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles Division, before Hon. Mariana R. Pfaelzer. Additional news about Masimo can be found at http://www.masimo.com/news/news.cfm

DEG Tobacco Case Settles for $33 Million, Plus 10-year Purchase Agreement of $700 Million

Digital Evidence Group, LLC was entrusted with video production and consulting work in the case D. Lamar DeLoach et al. v. Philip Morris USA Inc., et al. The case is one of the largest antitrust cases the tobacco industry has seen.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought by tobacco growers and quota holders alleging a price-fixing conspiracy. United States District Judge William L. Osteen gave the settlement between the class and R.J. Reynolds preliminary approval at a hearing in Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 22, 2004.

Under the terms of the agreement, R.J. Reynolds will pay the class a lump sum of $33 million, and agreed to purchase 35 million green leaf pounds annually of U.S. flue-cured and burley tobacco annually for the next ten years. This tobacco purchase obligation may generate a revenue stream of approximately $700 million over the next ten years, beginning with the 2004 tobacco crop. The settlement is believed to be the largest antitrust settlement ever by R.J. Reynolds in an antitrust case.

The class was represented by Howrey Simon Arnold & White of Washington, D.C. The lawsuit was filed in February 2000 on behalf of tobacco growers and quota holders, who alleged that Reynolds and other cigarette manufacturers and their leaf dealers conspired to fix the price of leaf tobacco sold at auctions for several years. In May 2003, Philip Morris, Lorillard Tobacco Company, Inc., Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation, and several leaf dealers arrived at a separate settlement with the growers.

Under the settlements with all defendants, the benefits to class members include:

· The purchase of 440 million green leaf pounds annually for ten years and,

· The distribution of over $200 million in cash to the class

For further press releases, please see the following:
http://www.howrey.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&newsid=1995
http://www.rjrt.com/TI/TIlitigation_pressview.asp?postID=451

Jury Awards $62.3 Million to DEG's Client Imagexpo

In November, 2003, a jury awarded damages to Imagexpo L.L.C., a subsidiary of SPX Corporation, in a patent infringement suit against Microsoft Corporation. Digital Evidence Group, LLC provided trial consulting services to Imagexpo and its counsel Howrey Simon Arnold & White.

The jury awarded SPX's Imagexpo $62.3 million in compensatory damages and found that Microsoft willfully infringed the patent. The parties then settled the dispute for $60 million.

The litigation related to a complaint that SPX's Imagexpo filed in October 2002 against Microsoft alleging that Imagexpo’s patent related to real-time conferencing was infringed by the NetMeeting Whiteboard feature of various of Microsoft's products. The case was heard in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.

For more information, see http://www.howrey.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&newsID=1768