Spoliation occurs when evidence subject to a preservation duty is lost, destroyed, altered, or rendered unusable. It can result from deliberate destruction, but far more often from failure to suspend automatic deletion or from continued ordinary-course operations.
Remedies range from cost shifting and additional discovery to evidence preclusion, adverse inference instructions, and in extreme cases default judgment or dismissal.
Alternative Names:
Spoliation of Evidence, Evidence Destruction
Why it Matters?
A spoliation motion changes what a trial is about. Instead of contesting liability, the defendant spends the case explaining why evidence disappeared, and juries reason that missing evidence would have been unfavorable. That shift in narrative is usually worth more to a plaintiff than the underlying evidence would have been, which is why preservation discipline is a liability issue rather than an administrative one.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Does spoliation require intentional destruction?
What is the most common cause of spoliation?
