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Mealey's Discovery

  • January 21, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Rejects Meta’s ‘False Dichotomy,’ Faults Some AI Discovery

    SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms Inc.’s “false dichotomy” about the possible answers regarding its use of copyrighted material in an artificial intelligence case is based on minor quibbles about the extent of the copying and does not “justify the hopelessly vague” answers it offered about what its search of the training data revealed, a federal magistrate judge in California said Jan. 17 in partially granting motions to compel.

  • January 17, 2025

    Opioid Plaintiff Says PBMs Unlikely To Win Privilege Order Row On Appeal

    CINCINNATI — Rochester, N.Y., a plaintiff in the nationwide opioid multidistrict litigation, on Jan. 16 opposed a motion for an emergency stay filed by two pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that the PBMs are unlikely to succeed on their efforts to bar certain documents from being produced during discovery and that the city will be harmed by the stay.

  • January 16, 2025

    N.J. High Court Decision Is Cited In Discovery Ruling On Reinsurance Info

    TRENTON, N.J. — Declining to compel production of information concerning a reinsurance policy, a New Jersey federal magistrate judge concluded that Statewide Ins. Fund v. Star Ins. Co. and the state statute that authorized a joint insurance fund (JIF) rendered the discovery requests at issue “not relevant and not proportional to the needs of the case.”

  • January 16, 2025

    Discovery Referee Rules On Motions To Compel In Coverage Suit Over Opioid Epidemic

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A discovery referee granted in part insureds’ and insurers’ motions to compel discovery in a coverage dispute arising from the opioid epidemic brought in a North Carolina court.

  • January 16, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Won’t Condition Talc Suit Dismissal On Expert Discovery

    NEW YORK — A man is free to sue whomever he wants, and because dismissal with prejudice precludes any future litigation on the claims, the talc defendant will not suffer any prejudice and is not entitled to discovery into an expert on whom the plaintiff no longer relies, a federal magistrate judge in New York said Jan. 15 in recommending that the court grant the motion.

  • January 16, 2025

    Sanctions Sought For Alleged Text Messages Destruction In Insurance Coverage Row

    MINNEAPOLIS — Great American Insurance Co. (GAIC) filed a motion in a Minnesota federal court seeking sanctions related to the purported destruction of text messages by its insured, a Minneapolis event center, in the insurer’s suit seeking a declaration that it does not need to pay an appraisal award of $986,436 related to business income loss the insurer says was based upon “concealed and misrepresented material facts and circumstances willfully and with intent to defraud.”

  • January 15, 2025

    Plaintiffs Fight Bid For Disclosure Log In Suit Over Repricing Method

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Alleging ulterior motives and arguing that they have a common interest agreement (CIA) with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that “embodies the protections of [a protective order] and ensures the confidentiality of documents is maintained,” plaintiffs in a suit over alleged underpayment for out-of-network behavioral health treatment claims urge a California federal court to deny an administrative motion.

  • January 14, 2025

    Judge Affirms Discovery Orders Involving DOL Common Interest Agreement

    DENVER — Saying that a decision by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) not to file a challenge “ends the issue” but that she addressed objections anyway “out of caution,” a Colorado federal judge on Jan. 13 upheld related discovery rulings concerning a common interest agreement (CIA) in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenging a deal.

  • January 14, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Doe’s Petition Over Jurisdiction For Privilege Reviews

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in its Jan. 13 order list denied without comment a John Doe defendant’s petition for certiorari in which he challenged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that it lacked jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal related to attorney-client privilege determinations because the defendant is the subject of a criminal investigation.

  • January 13, 2025

    Nebraska High Court Upholds Subpoena Quashal For Officer’s Testimony On Assault

    LINCOLN, Neb. — An inmate who was convicted of assaulting another detainee failed to demonstrate good cause for why his subpoena for a corrections officer’s testimony was not made with at least two days’ notice, as required by a revised state law, a unanimous Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Jan. 10, affirming a trial court’s ruling that quashed the subpoena and establishing the abuse-of-discretion standard for the revised law’s deadline requirement, which had not yet been considered by the high court.

  • January 10, 2025

    Magistrate Won’t Sanction Google For Destroying Files It Had No Clear Duty To Keep

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Finding that the plaintiffs in a consolidated lawsuit over Google Inc.’s purported data sharing via its real-time bidding (RTB) process failed to establish that the internet giant had a duty to preserve and produce particular files in an unencrypted format, a California federal magistrate judge denied the plaintiffs’ motion for contempt and sanctions against Google.

  • January 10, 2025

    Montana High Court: Governor May Claim Privilege Subject To In Camera Review

    MISSOULA, Mont. — Reversing a trial court’s rejection of assertions of privilege by the Montana governor, a majority in the state’s Supreme Court affirmed guidelines for a gubernatorial privilege to protect from disclosure documents that contain advice related to the carrying out of a governor’s constitutional duties.

  • January 10, 2025

    Memory Expert, Missing Evidence Central To Delaware Asbestos Case Developments

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge excluded a memory expert in an asbestos pipe case, saying that while a company may challenge testimony, it may not do so through expert opinions because the testimony trespasses on the jury’s role of determining witness credibility.  Meanwhile, the plaintiff in the case moved for an adverse instruction about missing evidence, saying a company “born under the specter of asbestos” should have known that it would face litigation, a move J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. (JMM) portrayed as a coordinated effort to hamstring its ability to raise a defense.

  • January 09, 2025

    Company Must Produce Witness’ Lawsuit Funding Evidence In OpenAI Trademark Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A company locked in a suit with OpenAI Inc. over trademark infringement must produce documents related to a nonparty witness who is an investor and is funding the company’s defense as the evidence goes to his credibility and bias, a federal magistrate judge in California said Jan. 8.  In a second order the court granted OpenAI additional time to depose the company’s founder.

  • January 09, 2025

    Man: ‘Discovery Fraud’ Should Make Court Reconsider Asbestos-Talc Judgment Ruling

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — An asbestos-talc defendant secured jurisdictional dismissal on the basis of “ongoing discovery fraud,” a man told a Connecticut judge on Jan. 8 in a motion seeking to reargue a decision not to open judgment for the company.

  • January 09, 2025

    Vice Chancellor Addresses Privilege Claims In DUFTA Case Discovery Dispute

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor ordered plaintiffs to produce some documents they had argued were privileged and to pay for additional depositions in a putative class suit over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits.

  • January 08, 2025

    Pipe Maker Opposes Reopening Expert Discovery In Asbestos Case

    OAKLAND, Calif. — An asbestos pipe defendant told a California judge that it diligently pursued experts for its defense and that it would be prejudicial to reopen expert discovery simply because the plaintiffs did not exhibit the same behavior.

  • January 07, 2025

    Judge Sets Aside Deadlines During Discovery In Breach Suit Against Ex-Underwriter

    MIAMI — After an insurer asked to extend deadlines for reasons including that recent discovery “has revealed the broad scope of [its former underwriter]’s years-long, transnational scheme” that allegedly exposed it “to over $100 million in claims,” a Florida federal judge entered an order setting aside the deadlines while discovery continues.

  • January 07, 2025

    South Dakota High Court: State Can’t Be Ordered To Produce Rape Victim’s Records

    PIERRE, S.D. — The defendant in a rape case cannot subpoena the state to produce the victim’s treatment records that are not in its possession and that might not exist at all, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled, reversing a trial court’s order to produce such records for in camera review.

  • January 06, 2025

    Ohio High Court Remands Discovery Privilege Dispute In Medical Malpractice Suit

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Chiding a trial court for “erroneously limit[ing] its own power to control the discovery process,” the Ohio Supreme Court remanded a disagreement over whether a treating physician’s residency file is protected by the peer-review privilege, instructing the trial court to use in camera review, among other inquiries, in determining whether the privilege applies.

  • January 06, 2025

    Opioid MDL Judge OKs Stay On Privilege Order, Denies Stay For Personnel Records

    CLEVELAND — The Ohio federal judge overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation on Jan. 6 released an amended order that granted two pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) a temporary stay on an order finding that certain documents were not privileged but denied the motion to stay the release of personnel files.

  • January 03, 2025

    9th Circuit Partly Reverses Dismissal Of Muslims’ Suit Over FBI Surveillance

    SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court remanded a surveillance suit brought by a group of California Muslims against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and 18 months after it heard oral argument in the matter, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal of constitutional claims against individual FBI agents while finding that a trial court erred in dismissing religious discrimination claims under the state secrets privilege without conducting the necessary inquiry.

  • December 18, 2024

    Contempt, Stay At Issue In Asbestos Expert Subpoena Case

    NEW YORK — An asbestos expert, her hospital employer and Johnson & Johnson, locked in a battle over production of the identities of individuals the expert relied on in a study on talc exposures, briefed a New York Supreme Court justice on whether contempt sanctions are warranted for failure to produce evidence or whether a forthcoming motion to reargue and a pending motion for a protective order stayed an appellate court’s ruling, according to documents filed on the court’s docket.

  • December 18, 2024

    Facing Asbestos Trial Delay, Judge Advances Hearing On Reopening Expert Discovery

    OAKLAND, Calif. — After a couple warned that experts on both sides of an asbestos case are unavailable and that continuing with the existing schedule would threaten to delay the case, a California judge issued a tentative ruling advancing a hearing on reopening expert discovery.  Separately, the plaintiffs appealed a decision granting summary judgment to asbestos fiber supplier Union Carbide Corp.

  • December 18, 2024

    Talc Company Calls Arguments For Reopening Case ‘Hollow,’ ‘Legally Meaningless’

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A distribution agreement that will allegedly now show connections to Connecticut has been in the plaintiff’s possession the entire time; an unpublished and not final South Carolina court ruling finding fraud does not warrant reopening the case; and arguments to the contrary are “hollow and legally meaningless,” a talc company tells a Connecticut judge.