MIAMI — Saying in part that “the lack of judicial oversight effectively eliminated the system of checks and balances ensuring against an overly broad assertion of privilege,” a Florida appellate panel on June 10 granted a certiorari petition and quashed two discovery orders that shielded a nonparty law firm “from producing documents relating to its previous clients’ assets and financial transactions” in a case involving a default judgment.

CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 10 agreed with an Illinois federal judge’s finding that a maker of patriotic clothes began using the phrase “This We’ll Defend” as a source-identifying trademark years before a different clothing company began using the same phrase as a mark, affirming the judge’s finding that a trademark registration was defeated by the timing.

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 10 affirmed a district court’s ruling that an auto insurer did not act in bad faith in failing to settle a claim against its insureds because there is no evidence that the insurer failed to conduct an investigation or failed to advise its insureds of settlement negotiations and communications with the claimant.

RICHMOND, Va. — A split Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel for a second time reversed dismissal of a class complaint brought by West Virginia foster children, opining that federal courts have “a duty . . . to remedy systemic constitutional rights violations.”

DENVER — A trial court did not err in granting an auto insurer’s motion to compel an insured to produce medical records and to undergo an independent medical exam because the Colorado precedent cited by the insured applies only to bad faith claims and, therefore, does not preclude the insurer from seeking evidence that was not available to it at the time it made its claim decision, the Colorado Supreme Court said.

GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal judge on June 9 granted a motion to quash a subpoena only as to Children’s National Hospital (CNH) in a bid by families who received transgender health care to quash subpoenas to over 20 health care providers related to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking medical records about transgender medical procedures on children, finding that the CNH subpoena regarding investigations under the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) is a pretext to fulfill the “well-publicized policy objective to terminate and block gender affirming healthcare.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a nonprecedential opinion saying the U.S. Court of Federal Claims erred by converting a “motion for summary judgment into a motion to dismiss without providing notice to the parties,” the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 9 vacated and remanded dismissal of a suit filed against the federal government over a purported water flowage easement; however, the appellate court affirmed four discovery orders in which the lower court generally upheld the government’s assertion of deliberative process privilege, saying it found no abuse of discretion in those rulings.

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a New York federal judge’s summary judgment ruling that a 2004 U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) ruling had preclusive effect on the issue of likelihood-of-confusion on claims that a California winery infringed an Italian winery’s trademarks; the panel determined that TTAB’s order did not meaningfully consider the parties’ use of the marks at issue in commerce and thus did not have preclusive effect.