## Facts

- Brenda Gordon sued T.G.R. Logistics, Inc. in a diversity personal-injury action arising from a Wyoming highway collision involving TGR’s tractor-trailer.
- Gordon claimed significant physical injuries and ongoing psychological harm, including PTSD and depression, and sought damages for continued limitations and emotional distress.
- During discovery, TGR demanded an electronic copy of Gordon’s entire Facebook account history for two identified accounts, including a multi-year period that extended before the accident.
- Gordon produced Facebook material referencing the accident or her injuries and produced results from agreed keyword searches.
- Gordon objected to producing her entire Facebook history as overbroad, invasive, and disproportionate to the needs of the case.
- TGR moved to compel production of Gordon’s complete Facebook history.

## Issues

1. Whether Rule 26(b)(1) permits compelling an injured plaintiff to produce an electronic copy of her entire Facebook account history based on alleged relevance to claimed physical and emotional injuries.
2. Whether proportionality limits require narrowing social-media discovery to targeted, post-accident content rather than pre-accident and complete account archives.

## Decision

- The court granted the motion to compel in part and denied it in part.
- The court denied TGR’s request for Gordon’s entire Facebook account history, particularly broad pre-accident production, as not proportional to the needs of the case.
- The court required additional, targeted production of relevant post-accident Facebook content bearing on Gordon’s claimed injuries, limitations, activities, and emotional condition.

## Legal Principles

- Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1), discovery must be limited to nonprivileged matter that is relevant to claims or defenses and proportional to the needs of the case.
- Social-media content can be relevant to personal-injury damages, including allegations of emotional distress, but relevance does not justify unrestricted access to entire accounts.
- Requests for complete social-media archives are improper when they would disclose substantial irrelevant private information for only marginal likely benefit.
- Proportionality analysis may account for privacy-related burden and the risk that producing large volumes of irrelevant material will trigger costly, expanding follow-on discovery.
- In a physical-injury case with “garden-variety” emotional-distress allegations, broad pre-accident social-media discovery is less likely to be justified absent a specific showing of importance to the disputed issues.

## Conclusion

Applying Rule 26(b)(1)’s relevance and proportionality limits, the court rejected a demand for the plaintiff’s entire Facebook history and instead ordered narrower production of post-accident social-media materials tied to the claimed injuries and damages.


Gordon v. T.G.R. Logistics, Inc., 321 F.R.D. 401 (D. Wyo. 2017)