Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Discovery

  • February 19, 2026

    Magistrate Grants Government’s Medical Records Bid In FCA Suit Over Coding ‘Fraud’

    NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge on Feb. 18 granted the U.S. government’s request for medical records in its suit against Anthem Inc. alleging violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) related to alleged inaccurate diagnosis codes submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for services provided to Anthem’s Medicare beneficiaries, finding that the request is “timely” and that the records “are in fact needed.”

  • February 19, 2026

    Mining Company: Recent Bankruptcy Plan Discovery Dooms Asbestos Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A recently discovered plan of reorganization supports the position that a Chapter 11 bankruptcy discharged all debts and liabilities and bars an asbestos suit against an alleged successor entity, a mining company argues after a federal judge in Louisiana denied its summary judgment motion based on the document’s absence.  The plaintiffs moved for contempt sanctions shortly after that ruling, citing “repeated misconduct” by the defendant, including reliance on the previously missing evidence.

  • February 19, 2026

    Judge: Work Product Protections Apply To Pro Se Plaintiff’s AI Use

    DETROIT — A pro se plaintiff’s use of artificial intelligence in a case is subject to protections, and because AI is a tool and not a person, providing it information about the case did not waive work product protections, a federal magistrate judge in Michigan said in denying a motion to compel.

  • February 18, 2026

    Government: Camp Lejeune Plaintiffs’ Bid To Nix Evidence Should Be Denied

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. government on Feb. 17 filed a brief in North Carolina federal court arguing that, with regard to the litigation over drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune, the Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group’s (PLG) motion in limine requesting that the district court preclude the government from offering evidence of any award, payment or benefit immaterial to and/or outside of the scope of the offset provision in the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA), should be denied except for with respect to the PLG’s requested relief regarding unenumerated programs such as TRICARE.

  • February 18, 2026

    Securities Defendant’s AI Conversations Not Protected, Judge Says

    NEW YORK — A securities fraud defendant’s communications with Anthropic PBC’s Claude about his case are not protected by attorney-client privilege or the attorney work product doctrine, a federal judge in New York said Feb. 17.

  • February 18, 2026

    Suboxone MDL Judge Selects 100 Plaintiffs For Coordinated Discovery

    CLEVELAND — The judge overseeing the Suboxone film multidistrict litigation has randomly selected 100 plaintiffs to undergo coordinated core discovery proceedings pursuant to a previous case management order.

  • February 13, 2026

    Pa. Federal Judge Partly Grants Motion To Compel In LTD Benefits Case

    WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Feb. 12 declined to compel production of “batting average” information and communications concerning state or federal investigations but ordered the administrator of a group long-term disability (LTD) policy to provide some of the information a claimant seeks regarding incentives for insurance adjusters and reviewing physicians, the administrator’s review policies and procedures and its use of a third-party medical review company.

  • February 11, 2026

    Parties In AI Surgery Error Suit Should Cure Discovery Dispute, Judge Warns

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas asked the parties in a strict product liability and negligence suit, in which a woman claims she suffered grave injury from the use of artificial intelligence-guided surgery tools, to work at resolving a motion to compel discovery without court intervention and warned of the potential dangers of failing to do so.

  • February 10, 2026

    Disability Determination, Other Issues Briefed Before 6th Circuit In Benefits Case

    CINCINNATI — Arguing in part that the claimant’s “proven ability to work coupled with the improvement documented by her own treating providers” was sufficient to show that she was not totally disabled under the terms of the long-term disability (LTD) plan, appellants urged the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm denial of benefits for a project director who stopped working because of symptoms she attributed to long COVID.

  • February 10, 2026

    Discovery Deadline Extended In Hurricane Coverage Dispute Involving LIGA

    BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana federal magistrate judge granted homeowners’ unopposed motion for an extension to provide expert disclosures in their Hurricane Ida coverage dispute with an insurance carrier participating in the U.S. government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA).

  • February 10, 2026

    LTD Insurer Objects To Order Allowing Discovery On Fiduciary Breach Claim

    MINNEAPOLIS — A long-term disability (LTD) insurer that is trying to get a federal magistrate judge’s discovery order reversed argues in a Minnesota federal court filing that the claimant should not have been allowed “to parse out conduct from an ordinary denial of benefits claim and re-brand it as a separate claim for breach of fiduciary duty and thereby obtain discovery in contravention of Eighth Circuit authority prohibiting discovery on” benefits claims asserted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • February 10, 2026

    1st Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Negligence Suit Against Gun Marketplace Company

    BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed in part a New Hampshire federal court’s ruling dismissing for lack of personal jurisdiction a former police officer and his wife’s negligence suit against a company that operates an online marketplace for firearms, finding “no basis for disturbing the District Court's purposeful-availment ruling insofar as it does not relate to” additional evidence provided by the couple.

  • February 10, 2026

    1st Circuit Affirms Discovery, Summary Judgment Rulings In Life Insurance Case

    BOSTON — Affirming summary judgment and discovery rulings in a life insurance beneficiary designation dispute involving a group life insurance policy governed by the Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance Act (FEGLIA), the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in part that when one party finally filed a motion “for a court order to access [the decedent’s] medical records six years into litigation, the extended discovery period had already closed, and the parties had filed cross-motions for summary judgment.”

  • February 10, 2026

    Louisiana Judge Denies Genetic Testing In Asbestos Lung Cancer Case

    BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana judge denied a motion to compel production of a blood sample for genetic testing in an asbestos lung cancer case, saying there was insufficient causation evidence before the court that would warrant allowing the medical procedure.

  • February 09, 2026

    Magistrate Grants Stipulation In Meta Social Media Addiction Discovery Dispute

    OAKLAND, Calif. — After parties filed a joint stipulation regarding discovery documents, a California federal magistrate judge issued an order granting the stipulation, which established that documents Meta Platforms Inc. agreed to produce constitute all documents currently at issue in a product liability multidistrict litigation over the purported addictive qualities for adolescents of several of the largest social media platforms.

  • February 09, 2026

    Washington Panel Affirms Discovery Sanctions, Other Issues In Water Pipe Case

    SEATTLE — Ruling against the appellants on every issue raised in the challenge including monetary and other sanctions for discovery violations in a civil suit over faulty water pipes, the Division I Washington Court of Appeals said in part that no authority was cited for the proposition “that due process required the” court that presided over a jury trial “to notify counsel that it was considering personal sanctions.”

  • February 06, 2026

    New Mexico High Court Says Strike Of Expert Affidavit Not Discovery Sanction

    SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s ruling striking a late-filed expert affidavit in a medical negligence case and its subsequent grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants for lack of causation but on different grounds than the intermediate appellate court, finding that the trial court’s action was not a discovery sanction but instead an exercise of “its authority to enforce a scheduling order.”

  • February 06, 2026

    Split Oklahoma High Court Affirms Attorney-Client Privilege Ruling

    OKLAHOMA CITY — In a 7-1 decision in a case centered on two reports that the University of Oklahoma commissioned from a law firm concerning possible personnel misconduct and involving what the term “pending” means in the state’s attorney-client privilege statute, the Oklahoma Supreme Court affirmed a summary judgment ruling that the privilege applies to the reports.

  • February 05, 2026

    Property Insurer Must Produce Files Related To Insured’s Damage Claim, Judge Says

    DALLAS — A commercial property insurer is required to produce underwriting and personnel files related to an insured’s storm damage claim because the files are applicable to the insured’s claim, a Texas federal magistrate judge said in partially granting the insured’s motion to compel.

  • February 03, 2026

    Magistrate Orders Parties To Produce Documents In ‘Upcoding’ Insurance Fraud Row

    KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal magistrate judge on Feb. 2 granted in part the parties’ discovery requests in a suit filed by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Co. and related entities alleging that medical staffing companies were “upcoding” claims, resulting in millions of dollars in overpayment.

  • February 03, 2026

    Parties File Summary Judgment Cross-Motions In Reinsurance Policy Dispute

    TRENTON, N.J. — A commercial auto insurer and a joint insurance fund filed cross-motions for summary judgment in a New Jersey federal court in a dispute stemming from a multimillion dollar settlement of a personal injury lawsuit involving a municipally owned ambulance, with the insurer arguing that policy language places primary responsibility on the insurance fund and the insurance fund contending that state law requires exhaustion of commercial coverage first.

  • February 03, 2026

    Colorado Supreme Court Majority: Physician Privilege Exception Excludes Records

    DENVER — A Colorado Supreme Court majority issued a partial reversal and remand in an interlocutory appeal concerning the child abuse exception to physician-patient privilege under Colorado law, drawing a partial dissent that expresses concern that the ruling “will inadvertently throw a monkey wrench into the prosecution of a large swath of child abuse cases.”

  • February 03, 2026

    Colo. High Court: Jurisdiction Lacking Over Nonparty In Criminal Discovery Row

    DENVER — Holding that while a trial court is authorized under state rules of criminal procedure “to order a nonparty to disclose materials or information to a defendant during pretrial discovery,” those orders “are enforceable only if the court also obtains personal jurisdiction over the nonparty,” a divided Colorado Supreme Court vacated a trial court’s order for production of the complete investigative file in a separate criminal case, finding that because the district attorney’s office handling that case was not properly served, the trial court lacked jurisdiction over it.

  • January 30, 2026

    Judge Grants Joint Motion Governing Blood Draw, Genetic Testing

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana on Jan. 29 granted a joint motion governing a blood draw for genetic testing purposes in a mesothelioma case after finding that because the cause of the plaintiff’s mesothelioma was in controversy, the procedure satisfied federal rules.

  • January 29, 2026

    Camp Lejeune Plaintiffs: Government ‘Seeks To Rewrite’ CLJA Regarding Evidence

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The plaintiffs who are suing the U.S. government related to the drinking water contamination issues at Camp Lejeune have filed a brief in North Carolina federal court requesting that it preclude the government from offering evidence of any award, payment, or benefit immaterial to and/or outside of the scope of the Offset Provision in the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA), because they argue that the government “seeks to rewrite” the CLJA in an attempt to “apply the Offset Provision beyond its terms.”