Magistrate Judge Goodman: You Gotta Have (Bad) Faith!

Hi folks!

It's been a while since we last visited with Magistrate Judge Goodman, but I see that he has entered a very scholarly order on a spoliation motion seeking the dismissal of a party's pleadings.

In analyzing the legal standard, Judge Goodman sets the bar pretty high:

Given this circuit’s requirement that an adverse inference flowing from spoliation requires the presence of bad faith, even grossly negligent conduct would not justify that type of jury instruction when it is not accompanied by bad faith. . . . Because this circuit requires a showing of bad faith before sanctioning a party when there is spoliation of evidence,courts in this circuit must refrain from imposing sanctions when no bad faith is shown.

Ok, I agree.

But how could the song-spouting jurist miss an easy George Michael reference?