Mealey's Discovery
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May 20, 2025
Government Balks At Bid To Compel Firm’s Billing Records For Work At Camp Lejeune
RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. government on May 19 filed a brief opposing a motion to compel in North Carolina federal court arguing that it has produced all Camp Lejeune-related billing records sought by the Plaintiffs Leadership Group (PLG) related to work performed by an environmental and groundwater consulting firm before the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) was enacted and that “the burden and expense” of requiring the firm to look for additional billing records “far exceeds the benefit considering the extensive information that PLG has already received.”
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May 20, 2025
New Mexico Supreme Court: U And T Visa Applications Are Privileged, Not Discoverable
SANTA FE, N.M. — The applications for two types of nonimmigrant visas that are available for crime victims are privileged, the New Mexico Supreme Court held, deeming them not susceptible to production by defendants’ subpoenas and motions to compel.
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May 20, 2025
ERISA Discovery In Benefit Denial Cases Is Focus Of Bid For High Court’s Review
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Discovery in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case is the focus of a petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling for a multiemployer health plan, with the petitioner arguing that the “decision exacerbates both the ongoing split between Circuits as to determining what a plan administrator must do in order to satisfy its fiduciary obligation to perform a full and fair review, as well as the inconsistent factors that courts employ in order to determine whether discovery should be permitted,” and the plan contending that decision shows only “the routine exercise of judicial discretion in applying the same rule to differing facts.”
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May 20, 2025
Magistrate Judge Won’t Reconsider ChatGPT Output Preservation Ruling
SAN FRANCISCO — A magistrate judge in California turned away OpenAI entities’ concerns over privacy and the technical issues in denying reconsideration of an order requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs, saying the company had not shown that the outputs were not relevant to the case or that a different outcome was required.
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May 20, 2025
9th Circuit Won’t Rehear State Secrets Dispute In Suit Over Muslim Surveillance
SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Bureau of Investigation was denied its bid for en banc rehearing of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruling that established a new procedure for courts to consider information covered by the state secrets privilege rather then simply excluding all such information from a lawsuit alleging improper surveillance of Muslims by the FBI.
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May 16, 2025
9th Circuit Denies Rehearing In Discovery Dispute Over Lethal Injection Drugs
SAN FRANCISCO — Two months after affirming a death row inmate’s entitlement to some discovery regarding lethal injection drugs, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a petition for rehearing by the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) and issued an amended opinion, maintaining its previous finding that the appellant did not establish that the ordered production was burdensome.
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May 16, 2025
Magistrate Grants Discovery Motion In Trademark Row Involving Web-Based Retailers
DENVER — A Colorado magistrate judge granted a fencing company’s motion for leave to conduct jurisdictional discovery in its trademark infringement suit against web-based retailers, finding that the jurisdictional discovery information sought is necessary for the court to determine whether it has personal jurisdiction over the defendants.
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May 15, 2025
D.C. Circuit Denies Mandamus Petition Filed After DOGE Discovery Orde r
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals on May 14 denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE or USDS) after a nonprofit’s discovery motion seeking information relevant to whether DOGE has substantial authority independent of President Donald J. Trump was partially granted.
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May 15, 2025
Third-Party Hospital: Ignore Tactics In Asbestos Spat, Impose Sanctions
NEW YORK — Calling an asbestos defendant’s argument in briefing a “desperation tactic” that is both “immature and unprofessional,” a third-party hospital says in a reply brief that a New York federal court should impose sanctions for the undue burden and expense the defendant’s voluntary actions caused.
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May 15, 2025
Judge Stays Discovery In ‘Miss Cleo’ IP Fight While Mulling Dismissal
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge held that defendant television networks illustrated that there was adequate reason to stay discovery while the court considers a motion to dismiss intellectual property claims related to the television psychic character “Miss Cleo”; the judge held that the Psychic Readers Network Inc. (PRN) failed to show that it would be prejudiced by the stay of discovery.
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May 15, 2025
OpenAI Must Preserve Output Data, Magistrate Judge Says
SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI entities must preserve user output data and segregate output log data going forward after consolidated news plaintiffs indicated that the amount of data being deleted is significant and the company offered no evidence about any efforts it was taking or could take to preserve the evidence, a federal magistrate judge in California said while setting a briefing schedule and hearing on potential spoliation motions.
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May 15, 2025
Colorado Supreme Court: Driver’s Medical Records Protected By Privilege
DENVER — A truck driver who is the defendant in a wrongful death suit properly claimed physician-patient privilege in his emergency room medical records, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled, including facts about the underlying auto accident that may not specifically relate to the treatment of his injuries.
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May 15, 2025
Free Speech Law Doesn’t Apply To Compel, Sanctions Motions, Texas High Court Rules
AUSTIN, Texas — Two appeals courts erred in finding that underlying motions to compel discovery and for sanctions were barred by the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), the Texas Supreme Court ruled, holding that finding otherwise would subvert the act’s purposes and would serve to “drag out litigation.”
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May 14, 2025
Tennessee High Court: Peer- Review Privilege Waived In Items Disclosed To Family
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Acknowledging that discussions and materials from a hospital’s quality improvement committee (QIC) over a patient's care and death were privileged under state law as a form of peer-review privilege, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that this privilege was waived in any materials disclosed to a decedent’s family at a subsequent meeting.
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May 14, 2025
J&J Wants Discovery Into Talc MDL Litigation Funding
TRENTON, N.J. — Recent developments show that something “untoward” is going on, Johnson & Johnson entities say in a notice seeking discovery and to compel production of litigation financing behind one of the primary firms involved in the federal talc multidistrict litigation in New Jersey federal court.
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May 13, 2025
Calling Amazon’s Privilege Claims ‘Frivolous,’ FTC Seeks Sanctions In Prime Row
SEATTLE — The Federal Trade Commission filed a motion seeking sanctions against Amazon.com. Inc. in a suit alleging that Amazon and its officers “tricked” customers into enrolling in the Amazon Prime service, arguing that Amazon used its privilege log to hide evidence and that the claims for privilege “were so frivolous that an attorney, upon reviewing those documents or sections thereof, could not have had a good faith basis to withhold them on privilege grounds.”
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May 13, 2025
6th Circuit Finds Subpoena For Deceased Voter Records Properly Quashed
CINCINNATI — An election watchdog group did not demonstrate any prejudice from the quashing of a subpoena on an organization involved in updating voter records, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, affirming the discovery ruling, as well as a grant of summary judgment to the Michigan secretary of State on alleged violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
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May 13, 2025
Arbitration Summons Quashed By Florida Federal Court In Reinsurance Claims Dispute
TAMPA, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge denied without prejudice a reinsurer’s motion to enforce a nonparty arbitration summons, finding the summons, issued to the agent of a pair of cedents, to be procedurally deficient and ordering it quashed in a dispute involving the agent’s noncompliance with the summons.
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May 13, 2025
Judge: Reinsurance Info Is Relevant In Cyberattack Coverage Lawsuit
BALTIMORE — A media company that sued excess insurers it alleges owe millions in connection with an October 2021 cyberattack has obtained a mixed ruling on discovery disputes, with a Maryland federal magistrate judge concluding in part that “reinsurance policies, as well as related documents and communications, are relevant to [the plaintiff’s] bad faith claim and should be produced.”
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May 12, 2025
Production Of Reinsurance Agreement Ordered In Disability Benefits Dispute
JACKSON, Miss. — Days after a Mississippi federal magistrate judge ordered a workers’ compensation insurer to produce a reinsurance agreement, the magistrate judge granted the insurer’s motion to stay the production deadline until seven days after a ruling is issued on its forthcoming motion for a protective order as part of a broader conflict involving disputed temporary total disability (TTD) benefits.
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May 09, 2025
Alabama Supreme Court Remands Soup Burn Negligence Suit For Further Discovery
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Inconsistencies and questions in the record about the identity of the owner and operator of a market and deli where purportedly scalding soup was purchased demonstrate that a plaintiff’s requested deposition of the defendant’s owner is crucial to her case, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled, concluding that a trial court exceeded its discretion by denying the plaintiff’s motion to continue a summary judgment hearing for the purpose of conducting such discovery.
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May 09, 2025
On De Novo Review, Judge Rules That LTD Claimant Is Physically Disabled
LOS ANGELES — Taking issue with numerous aspects of an insurer’s decision to terminate long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a California federal judge concluded that “[a] preponderance of the evidence shows [that the claimant’s] medical symptoms related to spondylolisthesis, lumbar region status post lumbar fusion, and chronic pain render him disabled under the terms of the Plan.”
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May 09, 2025
Justice Refuses To Dismiss Archdiocese’s Claims In Sexual Abuse Coverage Dispute
NEW YORK — A New York justice denied general and excess liability insurers’ motion to dismiss the Archdiocese of New York’s claims for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and violations of New York General Business Law Section 348 in a coverage dispute arising from close to 1,700 underlying sexual abuse lawsuits, rejecting the insurers’ contention that the breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim is duplicative of the breach of contract claim.
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May 09, 2025
Quash Of Subpoenas On State Agency In Traffic Stop Suit Affirmed By 5th Circuit
NEW ORLEANS — A trial court correctly quashed subpoenas served on a Texas state agency by two men who alleged that their constitutional rights were violated in a traffic stop, with a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruling that the agency did not waive its sovereign immunity despite voluntarily participating in discovery.
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May 07, 2025
Texas Supreme Court Finds Deposition In UIM Suit Not Proportional At Present Stage
AUSTIN, Texas — Granting a petition for mandamus relief filed by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the Texas Supreme Court found that a policyholder that sued for underinsured motorist (UIM) benefits was not entitled to depose the insurer’s corporate representative while declaratory claims are still pending so as to avoid duplications of discovery and unnecessary expenses at this stage of the proceedings.