## Facts

- Kentucky Speedway, LLC sued NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation (ISC), alleging antitrust violations related to access to premier NASCAR races.
- During discovery, ISC produced documents in both paper and electronic form.
- The parties had no agreement and there was no prior court order requiring a specific ESI production format or inclusion of metadata.
- About seven months after ISC’s main production, Kentucky Speedway requested metadata for virtually every electronic document already produced.
- Kentucky Speedway did not identify particular documents or categories needing metadata, and offered a general claim that it needed custodian/origin information.
- ISC objected and sought protective relief, arguing the request was overbroad, burdensome, and disproportionate because metadata was not readily accessible in a consolidated form and would be costly to extract across the production set.

## Issues

1. Whether the requesting party was entitled to an order compelling production of metadata for nearly all previously produced ESI absent an ESI-format agreement or prior order and without a particularized showing of need.
2. Whether the burden and cost of extracting metadata across the full production set outweighed any likely benefit where the request was delayed and not targeted.

## Decision

- The court declined to require ISC to produce metadata for all previously produced electronic documents.
- The court granted protective relief to ISC to the extent necessary to prevent the requested blanket metadata production.
- The court indicated that metadata requests should be addressed early and, when sought later, should be tailored and supported by a specific need tied to identified documents or disputes.

## Legal Principles

- Absent an agreement or court order specifying production format, production of ESI does not automatically require production of underlying system metadata for all files.
- A party seeking broad metadata production must show a particularized need; generalized assertions about provenance or custody are insufficient.
- Discovery requests must be proportional; courts weigh the likely benefit of metadata against the burden and cost of extraction and production.
- Delayed, undifferentiated requests that attempt to expand the scope of prior production are disfavored, especially when the same information can be obtained through targeted discovery tools.

## Conclusion

The court rejected a late, blanket request for metadata covering nearly all produced ESI because the request lacked a specific justification and imposed a disproportionate burden, reinforcing that metadata production generally requires early planning or a targeted, fact-based showing of necessity.


Kentucky Speedway, LLC v. Nat'l Ass'n of Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc., No. 05-138-DCR, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92028 (E.D. Ky. Dec. 18, 2006)