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Mealey's Discovery

  • April 22, 2026

    4th Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment For Surgical Stapler Maker After Deadline Missed

    RICHMOND, Va. — A district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to amend a scheduling order to extend an expert disclosure deadline for a man who alleges that he was injured by the defective stapler, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming summary judgment for the manufacturer.

  • April 21, 2026

    Lowes Wants AI Sanction Order Expanded To Entire Firm, Citing ‘Systemic Issues’

    ALEXANDRIA, La. — A home improvement store asked a court to expand its order to show cause why two attorneys should not be sanctioned for misciting material in a brief, saying the problem appears to go further and that a review shows that the entire firm exhibits an “unchecked habit of misstating law, misquoting, and misleading multiple courts.”  One of the attorneys took responsibility for the errors in his response, saying he took steps to prevent future mistakes and that the court should ignore unsolicited input from the defendant.

  • April 21, 2026

    Federal Judge Orders Revised Discovery Report In Suit Over Stopped LTD Benefits

    ABERDEEN, S.D. — Ordering the parties to file a revised discovery report in a suit challenging termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a South Dakota federal judge referenced an allegation that the defendant “hired an attorney to” help the plaintiff pursue Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, saying that such an act “may imply a preference for insureds to seek and obtain SSDI in lieu of plan benefits” and could not be proved from the administrative record.

  • April 20, 2026

    Minnesota High Court Addresses Privilege Question, Won’t Overturn Search

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — Resolving an appeal that involved several aspects of Minnesota’s physician-patient evidentiary privilege, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld admission of medical records and run sheets but on different grounds than the state court of appeals had, and several justices signed onto a concurrence opining that the lack of “procedural safeguards” in the decision “leaves patients with no mechanism for protecting their privileged materials before their disclosure to law enforcement.”

  • April 17, 2026

    Briefs Address Rehearing Bid After Split 5th Circuit Ruling Involving Discovery

    NNEW ORLEANS — Contending in part that “this case is not an institutional‑law watershed,” a Texas county prosecutor’s office urged the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to deny en banc rehearing of a 2-1 ruling that applied the collateral order doctrine, dismissed a habeas corpus petition’s selective prosecution claims and vacated a federal magistrate judge’s order that compelled the nonparty office to produce “discovery of charging memoranda for comparator capital murder defendants within a thirty-year span.”

  • April 16, 2026

    New Hampshire High Court Affirms Privilege Piercing; Concurrence Notes Qualms

    CONCORD, N.H. — Affirming a jury trial conviction for criminal threatening in a case involving allegations of a mass shooting threat, the New Hampshire Supreme Court said in part that “the State showed an essential need for the defendant’s communications that justified the court’s piercing of the therapist-patient privilege”; the ruling drew a special concurrence criticizing the court’s privilege-piercing precedents.

  • April 15, 2026

    Citing Sovereign Immunity, 8th Circuit OKs Quash Of Third-Party Deposition Bid

    ST. LOUIS — Concluding that the trial court wrongly applied a 1997 decision and that here the circumstances mean that “state sovereign immunity does bar enforcement of” a subpoena duces tecum for third-party deposition from Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) in a suit over a fatal shooting, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed denial of a motion to quash the subpoena.

  • April 15, 2026

    Criticizing ‘Misinformation,’ Judge Re-Dismisses Unfair Pricing Suit Against Juul

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted a motion by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and one of its wholesalers to reconsider an order granting a company’s motion to file a fourth amended complaint accusing JLI of antitrust law violations, vacated the order and affirmed a previous order dismissing the complaint with prejudice due to “misinformation” from the plaintiff regarding the status of discovery proceedings.

  • April 14, 2026

    Judge Won’t Quash Subpoenas To Enforce 79.5M Euro Award Against Spain

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied motions by the Kingdom of Spain to stay discovery and quash subpoenas filed by an investment entity seeking to enforce a previously confirmed International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award against Spain worth more than 79.5 million euros and granted the investor’s motion for relief allowing it to execute on the award.

  • April 10, 2026

    Sanctions Imposed For Canceled Deposition But Not For Fake Case Citation

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Because the plaintiff’s attorney in an employment discrimination case promptly corrected an “erroneously submitted” opposition brief and assured the court that her firm has taken action to prevent such filings in the future, a federal magistrate judge in California denied the employer’s motion to sanction the attorney for filing a brief containing what it claimed was a hallucinated case citation generated by artificial intelligence; the magistrate judge did, however, sanction the plaintiff and attorney for the last-minute cancellation of a scheduled deposition.

  • April 08, 2026

    Magistrate’s Ruling Denying Protective Order Affirmed In Insurance Fraud Dispute

    KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge affirmed a magistrate judge’s ruling denying a motion for protective order by medical staffing companies in a suit filed by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Co. and related entities alleging that the staffing companies were “upcoding” claims, resulting in millions of dollars in overpayment, finding that the magistrate judge did not err in determining that the companies failed to show that the audit documents at issue should be protected under attorney-client privilege.

  • April 07, 2026

    DOGE, Others Seek 2nd Supreme Court Review Of Discovery Orders In FOIA Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. DOGE Service (referred to as both DOGE and USDS), the DOGE acting administrator, Elon Musk and others in the federal government filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to take up for the second time questions concerning discovery in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding DOGE’s authority and role in mass firings in the federal government.

  • April 06, 2026

    High Court Sends FBI’s State Secrets Privilege Case Back To District Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Granting the FBI’s petition for a writ of certiorari in a state secrets privilege case about governmental surveillance and religious discrimination, the U.S. Supreme Court in its April 6 orders list vacated the challenged judgment and instructed that the case be remanded “to the district court for reconsideration in light of recent factual developments pertinent to this case and the government's motion to dismiss.”

  • April 03, 2026

    Government, Amici File Merits Briefs In High Court’s Geofence Warrant Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — As oral argument approaches in a U.S. Supreme Court case where the petitioner was convicted of armed robbery through cell phone location evidence obtained through a geofence warrant that he argues was unconstitutional, the U.S. government filed a merits brief contending in part that the petitioner’s “dramatic expansion of the Fourth Amendment would stifle developments in . . . evolving areas of law and handicap the investigation of major crimes,” and amici curiae including local government organizations made similar arguments.

  • April 02, 2026

    Court: Pro Se Plaintiff Entitled To Protections, But Not Unfettered AI Use

    DENVER — Acknowledging the hard questions artificial intelligence raises in the legal field, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado said pro seplaintiffs enjoy the same privacy and work-product protections as lawyers under federal rules, but concluded that a protective order in the employment discrimination case before her must be amended to ensure confidential information does not end up in consumer AI models.

  • March 26, 2026

    Judge Amends Protective Order On Use Of AI Tools In Chemical Injury Suits

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A U.S. magistrate judge in Kansas on March 25 amended a protective order governing the use of AI tools in chemical injury litigation, stating that any party that wishes to use an AI tool in connection with discovery materials must, prior to using the tool, provide written notice of its intent to use the tool because submission of discovery materials to an open AI tool may violate U.S. data privacy laws as well as strict disclosure rules under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

  • March 25, 2026

    Bid To Restrict Videos Of DOGE Depositions Is Denied In N.Y. Federal Court

    NEW YORK — Denying a motion for a protective order to restrict public dissemination of video recordings of depositions of U.S. DOGE Service employees and others in a suit over termination of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants, a New York federal judge ruled that the materials are not judicial documents and the government failed to show the “good cause” necessary for such restriction.

  • March 25, 2026

    5th Circuit Affirms Costs Award Involving Deposition Videos And Transcripts

    NEW ORLEANS — Holding in part that the trial court “did not abuse its discretion in awarding fees for both videos and transcripts of depositions, given its determination concerning the necessity of both” in a suit over Title IX and negligence claims, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an award of $184,033.11 in costs.

  • March 24, 2026

    High Court Won’t Consider Federal Circuit-Affirmed Sanctions In IP Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 23 rejected a patent-holding company’s request that it consider the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a Florida federal judge’s entry of sanctions against it in a false advertising and unfair competition dispute.

  • March 24, 2026

    Judge Grants In Part Insured’s Motion To Compel In Cyber Crime Coverage Suit

    DALLAS — A federal judge in Dallas granted in part an insured’s motion to compel an insurer to provide deposition testimony, answer interrogatories and produce “privileged” documents in a coverage dispute arising from a criminal cyberattack, concluding that the insured has established a possibility that testimony as to underwriting may be relevant to a claim or defense and the insurer has failed to demonstrate that the documents it withheld satisfy the elements of attorney-client privilege or are entitled to work product protection.

  • March 23, 2026

    Judge Orders Discovery In Shipping Arbitration Pending Sanctions Row

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on March 20 granted a shipping investor’s letter motion for discovery in support of its motion for sanctions against Reed Smith LLP, Greenberg Traurig LLP and an attorney at each firm for their alleged participation in litigation to confirm a since-vacated JAMS award worth more than $102 million despite allegedly “knowing” that it “had been obtained through fraud.”

  • March 23, 2026

    Judge Strikes Supplemental Reports By Government’s Expert In Camp Lejeune Case

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal magistrate judge in North Carolina has granted the Plaintiff Leadership Group’s (PLG) motion to strike supplemental reports of a defense expert in the litigation pertaining to drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune, ruling that the U.S. government’s violation of disclosure rules under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure pertaining to the expert’s reports was “neither substantially justified nor harmless.”

  • March 19, 2026

    Re-Notice Of Deposition Filed In Guaranty Association Breach Of Contract Dispute

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After a Florida state court judge ordered homeowners to appear for depositions in their breach of contract suit against the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA), which was substituted as the defendant for their now-insolvent homeowners insurer, FIGA filed a re-notice stating that it will be deposing the homeowners on May 11.

  • March 19, 2026

    Federal Judge Severs Bad Faith Claim, Enters $9.8M Judgment In Favor Of Insured

    PANAMA CITY, Fla. — To correct a “procedural conundrum” indicated by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals while ruling on an insurer’s petition for writ of mandamus challenging an order requiring it to produce discovery on an insured’s bad faith claim, a federal judge in Florida severed a bad faith claim from a breach of contract claim in a Hurricane Michael coverage dispute and entered a $9,817,232.97 final judgment in favor of the insured on the breach of contract claim so the severed claims can proceed as their own separate lawsuits and result in separate final judgments from which appeals may be filed.

  • March 18, 2026

    Reconsideration Of Discovery Orders Denied In Search Monopoly Dispute With Google

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge denied reconsideration of orders denying requests to extend the deadline for expert reports and mostly denying requests to depose individuals in a group of internet search engine users’ suit asserting antitrust claims against Google LLC and related parties regarding allegations of a general search services monopoly.