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Mealey's Discovery

  • June 11, 2025

    Ferrosilicon Producer Seeks Reconsideration On Discovery Limits In Cleanup Row

    PADUCAH, Ky. — A ferrosilicon producer seeks reconsideration of a Kentucky federal magistrate judge’s ruling limiting the scope of the producer’s issued deposition topics, claiming that the court erred in failing to acknowledge a reinsurer as a proper party in the litigation and misinterpreted its role in a reinsurance contract in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs.

  • June 09, 2025

    Ohio Appeals Court Partly Grants Inmate Mandamus In Records Request Dispute

    CLEVELAND — An Ohio appeals court panel granted in part an incarcerated man’s petition for a writ of mandamus related to his request for seven categories of documents from an educational facility within the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) finding that three categories of documents that were withheld from production were not exempt from disclosure.

  • June 09, 2025

    3rd Circuit: Generic Drug Maker Lacked Standing To Appeal Foreign Discovery Order

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that it lacked jurisdiction over a discovery dispute in a New Jersey federal court that ultimately stems from an ongoing patent dispute in South Korea, holding that a discovery order under the federal statute that governs U.S. discovery for foreign proceedings was not an appealable final decision.

  • June 09, 2025

    Insurer’s Motion To Compel Granted In Row Over Coverage For Underlying FCA Suit

    BUFFALO, N.Y. —  A New York federal magistrate judge granted an insurer’s motion to compel discovery in a dispute over whether its insureds are entitled to coverage in an underlying qui tam suit alleging violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) regarding Medicare fraud, finding in part that the policyholders’ argument that the motion is barred by delay lacks “merit.”

  • June 09, 2025

    Supreme Court Grants Petition In DOGE Discovery Order Case; Narrowing Ordered

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Supreme Court majority on June 6 treated a stay application as a petition for a writ of certiorari and granted it in an appeal challenging two trial court discovery orders in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding U.S. DOGE Service’s (DOGE or USDS) authority.

  • June 06, 2025

    Motion To Compel Partially Granted In Coverage Dispute With Debris Removal Company

    NEW YORK  — Agreeing with an insured debris removal company and its principal that an insurer’s discovery request covering a 10-year period is “overly broad,” a New York federal judge partially granted the motion to compel discovery in an insurer’s suit seeking to rescind two insurance policies for purported fraudulent misrepresentations in insurance applications, granting discovery limited to one year before the initial policy application and until the end of the last policy renewal period.

  • June 06, 2025

    Judge Extends Discovery, Says Jurisdiction Prevents Employment Record Production

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California on June 5 extended the discovery deadline for employment documents held by a third party in an asbestos action but said jurisdictional issues likely prevent him from ordering their production as requested in an ex parte motion and envisioned by a magistrate judge’s order.

  • June 05, 2025

    Chinese Tech Firm Waives Mandamus Response In High Court Patent Discovery Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Chinese-owned flash memory chip company opted against responding to a petition for mandamus in which an American chip maker seeks relief from a discovery order requiring it to turn over sensitive documents to its Chinese rival, filing a notice of waiver with the U.S. Supreme Court on June 4.

  • June 04, 2025

    Judge Orders Fracking Company To Comply With Discovery Request In Royalty Dispute

    CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal magistrate judge on June 3 granted a plaintiff’s motion to compel discovery in a royalty payment dispute with a hydraulic fracturing company, ruling that the information the plaintiff seeks, namely, documents and communications concerning the payment and distribution of royalties, is relevant to the case.

  • June 04, 2025

    6th Circuit Denies PBMs’ Mandamus Petition For Discovery Order In Opioid MDL

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 3 denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by a group of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the nationwide opioid multidistrict litigation, rejecting arguments that the trial court’s discovery orders are “the kind of extraordinary abuses of discretion that justify mandamus relief.”

  • June 04, 2025

    7th Circuit Affirms Dismissal For Lack Of Prosecution, Despite Horse Trampling

    CHICAGO — A trial court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing a breach of contract suit for failure to prosecute based on a plaintiff's discovery failures and missed deadlines, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, also finding that an unsupported claim of being trampled by a horse did not suffice to support the plaintiff’s subsequent motion for relief from judgment.

  • June 03, 2025

    Tech Firm Seeks Mandamus From High Court In Memory Chip Patent Discovery Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A flash memory chip maker filed a petition for mandamus with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking relief from a trial court’s discovery order requiring it to turn over sensitive documents to a Chinese rival tech firm, which the petitioner says would violate an existing protective order and implicate national security concerns.

  • June 03, 2025

    Judge Orders Pesticide Company To Provide More Answers In IP Discovery Dispute

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio federal magistrate judge on June 2 ordered plaintiff pesticide manufacturers identify with specificity the protectible elements of two copyrights they say were infringed by a defendant pesticide manufacturer, granting the defendant company’s motion to compel discovery in which the company accused the plaintiff entities of responding to questions about the copyrights with “evasive” answers.

  • June 03, 2025

    IRS Opposes Bitcoin Owner’s Certiorari Bid Over Financial Records Summons

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Touting its investigative powers, the Internal Revenue Service filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, opposing a petition for certiorari from a man whose financial records were seized from a cryptocurrency exchange via a judicially issued summons, arguing that there was no violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because the petitioner had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the seized documents.

  • June 03, 2025

    Federal Magistrate Says Conduct Warrants Case-Ending Sanctions In Trademark Fight

    AUSTIN, Texas — A federal magistrate judge in Texas recommended that the chief operating officer of a plastics company be given terminating sanctions for his failure to turn over his cell phone and computer for examination in a trademark infringement suit brought by Yeti Coolers LLC.

  • May 29, 2025

    J&J Entity, Experts Debate Need For Study Identities, Asbestos-Talc Causation

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Discovery into whether there is asbestos in talc and if it causes mesothelioma is irrelevant to a trade libel case accusing experts of falsely identifying individuals with only talc-based exposures, a Johnson & Johnson entity argues in an opposition to a motion to compel filed in a federal court in Virginia.  Meanwhile, the experts urged the court to block the company’s attempts at a “freewheeling investigation” into the study participants, saying coded production of only facts about the individuals sufficiently protects the participants’ privacy.

  • May 28, 2025

    Nonprofits Appeal Injunction Denial Over IRS Sharing Of Taxpayer Data With DHS

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four nonprofit immigrant rights organizations filed a notice of appeal in District of Columbia federal court after a judge denied their motion to temporarily enjoin the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of the Treasury from sharing private taxpayer information with the Department of Homeland Security for the purpose of enforcing criminal immigration proceedings.

  • May 27, 2025

    OpenAI: ChatGPT Output Preservation ‘Unprecedented’ Privacy Violation

    SAN FRANCISCO — Requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs users wish to delete simply so news plaintiffs in a copyright suit can secure a litigation advantage constitutes an “unprecedented” privacy violation and sets a “dangerous precedent,” OpenAI entities tell a federal court in California in a May 23 supplemental opposition after a magistrate judge ordered the preservation and denied a motion for reconsideration.

  • May 27, 2025

    Parties Seek Discovery In Ghana In Reinsurance Breach Of Contract Suit

    NEW YORK — The plaintiffs in a breach of contract lawsuit ask a New York federal court to issue letters rogatory to a Ghanaian insurer and three of its employees to obtain otherwise unobtainable information from as part of a gold mining equipment dispute over whether the defendants are direct insurers or reinsurers of the plaintiffs.

  • May 27, 2025

    Chief Justice Roberts Stays Discovery Orders In Challenge Of DOGE’s Authority

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. issued an order on May 23 staying two trial court discovery orders in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding U.S. DOGE Service’s (DOGE or USDS) authority pending further order by the Supreme Court.

  • May 23, 2025

    South Carolina Top Court Affirms Discovery Sanction, Receiver For Atlas Turner

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A wealth of evidence supports a trial court’s decision striking defendant Atlas Turner Inc.’s answer as a sanction for discovery abuses in an asbestos case, and the company’s “moral fraud” warranted appointing a receiver over its insurance assets, the South Carolina Supreme Court said in narrowing but otherwise affirming the rulings.

  • May 22, 2025

    Government Seeks Stay Of Discovery Orders In Suit Challenging DOGE’s Authority

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE or USDS) and various federal government officials filed an application on May 21 in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay and an immediate administrative stay of discovery orders issued by a trial court in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding DOGE’s authority.

  • May 22, 2025

    Discovery Against Singaporean Company In Arbitral Row May Proceed, Judge Says

    WILMINGTON, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge denied motions by a Singaporean biosciences company and an affiliated doctor to vacate subpoenas to aid a foreign legal action brought against the company by Novo Nordisk A/S in a dispute over alleged misrepresentations regarding the effectiveness of a hypertension drug, rejecting the bioscience company’s arguments that the subpoenas were a “pretext” to improperly obtain discovery for a pending international arbitration between the parties.

  • May 22, 2025

    Kanye West Ordered To Supply Requested Discovery, Pay Fees In Copyright Fight

    LOS ANGELES — Kanye West and associated entities must turn over evidence in a copyright infringement suit claiming the rapper included unapproved music samples in two tracks on his album “Donda,” a federal judge in California ruled; the judge held that West and the related entities were wrong to argue that they were not in possession of any responsive documents.

  • May 22, 2025

    Kentucky Federal Judge Denies Reconsideration Request In Cleanup Costs Dispute

    PADUCAH, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky overruled the objections presented in and denied a ferrosilicon producer’s motion for reconsideration of a January ruling that denied the producer’s motion to compel production of documents in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs, ruling that the reconsideration motion impermissibly raised new arguments and failed to identify claimed ambiguities in a reinsurance contract between it and an insurer and reinsurer.