Article:
Dale A. Oesterle, A Private Litigant’s Remedies for an Opponent’s Inappropriate Destruction of Relevant Documents, 61 TEXAS L. REV. 1185 (1983).
 

Abstract:
This Article considers so-called “document retention systems,” or corporate litigants’ destruction of documents to minimize litigation exposure and prevent exhaustive discovery requests. The Article argues that laws regarding document destruction are too indulgent and encourage corporations to err on the side of destruction instead of retention. As a result, parties go into court without crucial evidence, relying on indirect evidence to prove their cases. Professor Oesterle concludes that the only solution is to amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to strengthen the consequences of document destruction.