Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Discovery

  • January 22, 2026

    11th Circuit: Attorney Logs In Lead Smelter Case Are Not Protected By Privilege

    ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 21 affirmed a lower court’s denial of a motion for a protective order sought by a law firm in a complex discovery dispute over allegations of fraud in an underlying case involving claims brought by Peruvian citizens who say there were injured by exposure to lead from a smelting operation. The panel held that the law firm was not entitled to attorney-client privilege or work product protection for documents related to the firm’s efforts to recruit plaintiffs for the case against the smelter.

  • January 22, 2026

    Automaker, Woman Debate Full Autopsy Disclosure In California Mesothelioma Case

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A woman and a foreign automaker briefed a California trial court on production of redacted autopsy records in a mesothelioma case, with the latter arguing in a reply brief that the evidence cannot be shielded behind attorney work product claims and that the production of tissue samples doesn’t alleviate the need for contemporaneous observations.

  • January 16, 2026

    Supreme Court To Tackle 4th Amendment Implications Of Geofence Warrants

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 16 granted certiorari to a man who was convicted of armed robbery through evidence obtained via a geofence warrant, which culls location information from users’ mobile devices, agreeing to address whether such warrants violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • January 16, 2026

    Pennsylvania To High Court: Group Didn’t Show Injury From Withheld Documents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A nonprofit election integrity organization failed to demonstrate that it experienced a concrete injury in the denial of its request for documents related to a voter registration error, Pennsylvania government parties argue in a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny the organization’s petition for certiorari and affirm that it lacked standing to bring suit under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.

  • January 14, 2026

    New Trial Ordered On Fraud, CLRA Claims Against Kia Based On Discovery Misuse

    SAN DIEGO — A trial court failed to properly assess the impact of, and the appropriate remedy for, discovery misuse and failures by Kia Motors America Inc., a California appeals panel majority found, reversing a judgment in the automaker’s favor and remanding for a new trial on claims stemming from purported engine defects and the imposition of monetary sanctions to compensate the plaintiff for Kia’s discovery behavior.

  • January 13, 2026

    Pa. Panel: Possible Privilege With Unlicensed Attorney Under Reasonable Belief

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appeals panel vacated a lower court’s ruling that the plaintiff in a wrongful termination lawsuit could not rely on the attorney-client privilege to withhold items during discovery, holding that despite his attorney’s unlicensed status, the privilege could still apply if the plaintiff reasonably believed that the attorney was licensed to practice law.

  • January 12, 2026

    N.C. Panel: Court Correctly Deemed Some COVID-Related Documents Properly Withheld

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A health research organization failed in its efforts to obtain certain documents withheld by a university in its response to a public records request, with a North Carolina Appeals Court panel ruling that a trial court correctly found that the documents were exempt from production under the North Carolina Public Records Act (PRA).

  • January 12, 2026

    Plaintiffs Settle With CVS After Talc Email Ruling, Seek Sanction On Last Defendant

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A pair of plaintiffs settled with a pharmacy after a California judge said he would admit an email in which an employee told co-workers what he learned about the dangers of consumer talc products.  The plaintiffs then asked the judge to sanction a second defendant for failing to produce a knowledgeable witness.

  • January 12, 2026

    Merck Wants Expert’s Testing Materials In Asbestos Talc Case

    CHICAGO — A couple must produce the grids and other materials on which an expert relied in an asbestos-talc case so that the expert’s opinions can be fairly evaluated and challenged, a company told an Illinois judge.

  • January 09, 2026

    Judge: Bifurcation, Stay Of Discovery Unwarranted In Windstorm Coverage Suit

    CHARLESTON, W. Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia denied an insurer’s motion to bifurcate an insured’s bad faith claim from the breach of contract claim in a windstorm coverage dispute, holding that the factors in Light v. Allstate Ins. Co. do not support bifurcation and that a stay of discovery of the bad faith claims is unwarranted.

  • January 09, 2026

    Texas Panel Denies Fracking Operator Relief From Order To Produce Documents

    HOUSTON — A Texas appellate panel has denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by a hydraulic fracturing operator in a dispute with royalty owners over an audit of wells, refusing to grant the fracking company relief from two requests that require production of documents relating to 3,000 wells over a period of eight years.

  • January 09, 2026

    Ky. High Court: Factual Parts Of Hospital’s Fall Analysis Exempt From Disclosure

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky trial court erred when it required a hospital to produce factual portions of a root cause analysis following a patient’s fall as that information is privileged, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate panel’s writ prohibiting a trial court from enforcing its discovery order as to those portions of the document.

  • January 08, 2026

    Juul Reaches ‘Agreement’ With NJOY Over Disputed Docs In Vape Patent Case

    PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Jan. 7 ordered Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), NJOY LLC, Altria Group Inc. and affiliates to file a joint statement under seal “that describes the resolution” of a discovery dispute in a patent lawsuit after JLI said the parties reached “an agreement” relating to allegedly privileged documents JLI “inadvertently” uploaded to a public database, which NJOY described as “evidence of the fraud [JLI] committed to obtain its patents from the Patent Office.”

  • January 08, 2026

    Montana High Court Won’t Decide State’s Discovery Row In Environmental Dispute

    HELENA, Mont. — Concluding that the state of Montana did not meet the criteria necessary to seek the “extraordinary remedy” of a writ of supervisory control, the Montana Supreme Court denied the state’s petition that it filed in response to a trial court’s order compelling it to comply with a conservationist organization’s requests for production (RFPs) of documents related to the passage of a state law over single-use plastics.

  • January 08, 2026

    New Jersey Federal Judge Rebuffs Challenge To Discovery Ruling In LTD Case

    NEWARK, N.J. — Denying a long-term disability (LTD) claimant’s challenge to a discovery ruling, a New Jersey federal judge rejected his arguments that a magistrate judge erred in determining that his short-term disability (STD) “claim file was not part of the administrative record for his LTD claim” and “in denying extra-record discovery concerning Defendant’s alleged conflict of interest.”

  • January 07, 2026

    Blood Draw For Genetic Testing Meets Federal Rules, Judge In Asbestos Case Says

    NEW ORLEANS — Because the cause of mesothelioma is in controversy and there is no other means of obtaining the genetic information the defendant contends could be an independent cause, a blood draw for genetic testing is appropriate, a federal judge in Louisiana said Jan. 6 in granting a motion to compel.

  • January 07, 2026

    5th Circuit Affirms $400K Sanction For Leak Of Priest’s Name In Bankruptcy Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — A bankruptcy court’s finding that a lawyer leaked confidential information regarding an accused priest in violation of a protective order was supported by competent evidence, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a finding of contempt and an imposition of $400,000 in sanctions.

  • January 06, 2026

    3rd Circuit Won’t Rehear Action Over Arbitrability Of German Discovery Dispute

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied several third-party litigation funders’ petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a split panel’s decision addressing a question of first impression, in which the majority affirmed an order denying a bid to compel arbitration of an application for discovery for use in Germany because it said the application does not qualify as a “civil action” under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

  • January 06, 2026

    Split 9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Federal Worker RIF Discovery Ruling

    SAN FRANCISCO — The two remaining members of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 5 denied a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by federal government parties who challenged the panel majority’s September ruling that denied the government’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to require the trial court to vacate a discovery order requiring in camera production of reduction-in-force (RIF) and reorganization plans for federal agencies; a full court vote was requested on the petition for rehearing en banc but failed to receive a majority of the votes.

  • January 06, 2026

    OpenAI Can’t Escape Production Of 20M Chat Logs, Judge Affirms

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York affirmed two rulings by a magistrate judge requiring OpenAI entities to produce 20 million ChatGPT logs after finding that she didn’t ignore privacy concerns or potentially less burdensome production options.

  • January 05, 2026

    Federal Workers’ Privacy Suit Over OPM ‘Test’ Emails Dismissed For No Jurisdiction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a putative class complaint by federal workers suing under pseudonyms who alleged that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) failed to conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment (PIA) before allegedly sending out “test” emails the workers claimed were being used to collect information on them.

  • December 30, 2025

    Insurers Denied Injunction But Granted Expedited Discovery In Captive Dispute

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge denied a group of insurers’ motion for a preliminary injunction compelling an insurance services firm, its captive affiliate and its general counsel to post millions of dollars in collateral, finding that the insurers failed to demonstrate a clear likelihood of success on the merits or irreparable harm, but granted the insurers’ request for expedited discovery in a dispute arising from the alleged mismanagement of a captive insurance program.

  • December 26, 2025

    Rehearing Denied After DOGE Discovery Mandamus Petition Partially Granted

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE or USDS) and other federal government parties after the appellate panel partially granted and partially denied the government parties’ petition for writ of mandamus challenging two trial court discovery orders in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding DOGE’s authority.

  • December 24, 2025

    Kentucky High Court Finds Some Information In Bad Faith Case Not Discoverable

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Finding that a trial court erred in ordering an employment practices liability insurer to produce all responsive documents relating to its insured’s claim for coverage and extensive personnel information in the insured’s bad faith suit against it, the Kentucky Supreme Court partially affirmed and partially reversed, remanding to the Court of Appeals with instructions to issue a writ of prohibition preventing the trial court judge from enforcing certain aspects of the discovery orders.

  • December 24, 2025

    Woman: Asbestos Link Clear, Genetic Testing Unnecessary In Mesothelioma Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A family history of diseases with clear links to asbestos exposures does not warrant permitting a blood draw to identify potential genetic causes that even if established would not relieve the defendant of its liability, a woman tells a federal judge in Louisiana in opposing a motion to compel.