Cognizant Cites 'Intentional Misconduct' of Plaintiff's Counsel in Opposition to Stay Discovery

The court shouldn't grant Zuania Vazquez-Padilla’s motion to stay discovery in a fraud complaint over Facebook content moderation, said defendant Cognizant Technology Solutions’ opposition (docket 8:23-cv-02607) Thursday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa. Discovery in Vazquez-Padilla’s case would unfairly prolong stays of discovery in two other matters that are “tangentially-related arbitrations,” it said. The plaintiff noted in her motion that the arbitrators stayed discovery until discovery proceeds in her case and argued that staying discovery in her case would “'delay discovery’" in the arbitrations and prevent those victims from “obtaining timely justice,” said the filing. Vazquez-Padilla’s response suggests that Cognizant and the court’s prior stays “are to blame for the arbitration plaintiffs’ inability to obtain 'timely justice,'” said the opposition. That argument “cannot be farther from the truth,” it said, saying discovery originally proceeded in the arbitrations as a matter of course until Vazquez-Padilla’s counsel “intentionally violated protective orders the arbitrators had entered by using confidential discovery material” from arbitrations in Aguilo et al. v. Cognizant Technology Solutions, it said. Discovery is stayed in the arbitrations because of Vazquez-Padilla’s counsel’s “intentional misconduct,” and the parties’ subsequent agreement to continue the stays, it said. “If anything,” said the opposition, plaintiff’s counsel’s “attempt to take advantage of his intentional discovery violations (again) to avoid a stay is yet another reason a discovery stay is particularly warranted here.” Vazquez-Padilla worked as a content moderator for Cognizant, which previously provided that service for Facebook. Its content moderators reviewed postings on Facebook to determine whether they violated the social media platform’s terms of use. Vazquez-Padilla claims reviewing graphic content caused her to develop psychological injuries.