Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe

Background

Strike 3 Holdings, LLC moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d)(1) for permission to conduct expedited discovery before the parties’ required initial conference. It sought to serve a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 subpoena on third-party Verizon Internet Services to identify John Doe, the subscriber assigned the Internet Protocol address 70.18.16.134.

Court’s Analysis

The court applied a flexible reasonableness-and-good-cause standard for expedited discovery before the initial conference. It found that the plaintiff satisfied the requirements for such discovery because it appeared unable otherwise to identify the defendant or serve him.

Order

The court authorized Strike 3 Holdings to serve Verizon with a Rule 45 subpoena seeking only the defendant’s name and address. The plaintiff could not seek the defendant’s email address, telephone number, or other information through that subpoena. Any information disclosed could be used only to obtain enough information to identify and serve the defendant.

The court required the plaintiff to serve Verizon with a copy of the order and subpoena and file an affidavit of service by January 11, 2021. It also authorized the plaintiff to serve a similar subpoena on any Internet service provider identified as providing Internet service to the defendant. If that provider qualified as a cable operator under 47 U.S.C. § 522(5), it had to comply with the notice requirement in 47 U.S.C. § 551(c)(2)(B) by sending the defendant a copy of the order. The court waived the pre-motion-letter requirement in its individual rules and directed the Clerk to close docket entry number 6.