A malpractice lawsuit was filed against a hospital in 2002 questioning the competency of a surgeon for performing the surgery that was done, which left the patient with a severe permanent complication. In reviewing the records obtained through e-discovery, issues in the anesthesia record were noted that changed the focus of the lawsuit to the anesthesiologist rather than the surgeon. There were 90 minutes where no vital signs were recorded and the anesthesiologist documented his presence for the entirety of the surgery (7 hours) just minutes after the beginning of the surgery. This information was found due to the presence of time stamps embedded in the system. Although the anesthesiologist was present for the total time of the surgery, he recorded his surgery notes for the whole time at the beginning of the surgery, instead of as the events occurred. The complication suffered by the patient was not likely to have been caused or affected by the shortcomings identified in the data. Because it was known that the metadata could be used to discredit the anesthesiologist, the hospital settled the case with the patient prior to the case being heard in court (Dimick 2007). This case illustrates how having the