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Mealey's Discovery

  • 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.

  • December 23, 2025

    Judge Finds Privacy Act, APA Claims Against DOGE, OPM Not Mooted

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge found that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) did not establish that claims against them under the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) were mooted by the establishment of new compliance procedures, leading her to deny a motion to dismiss.

  • December 19, 2025

    Muslims Oppose FBI’s Certiorari Petition Over State Secrets Privilege

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A question presented by the FBI in its bid for certiorari in a case about governmental surveillance and religious discrimination “breaks no new ground” and “involves a narrow issue from a rarely litigated aspect of the state secrets doctrine,” three Muslim Americans tell the U.S. Supreme Court in their opposition brief as they urge the high court to not grant certiorari in the nearly 16-year-old case, which is still at the motion-to-dismiss stage in a trial court.

  • December 18, 2025

    W.Va. Federal Judge Modifies Deadlines For Discovery Order in Opioid Case

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal judge refused to issue an emergency stay of the court’s order that compelled a pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) to release nationwide prescription and remuneration data but modified the order after a hearing on two motions filed by the PBM, which is facing allegations that its actions contributed to an “oversupply” of prescription opioids throughout West Virginia.

  • December 17, 2025

    Alabama High Court Grants Mandamus To Hospital In Birthing Injury Suit

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Depositions pertaining to newly alleged acts and omissions in a medical liability suit over a mother and baby’s injuries sustained while giving birth should have been stricken by a trial court because they related to amended claims that were untimely pleaded, an Alabama Supreme Court majority ruled, granting the defendants’ petitions for writs of mandamus to reverse a trial court’s denial of their motion to strike the depositions and dismiss the untimely claims.

  • December 16, 2025

    Discovery Is Among Issues In 6th Circuit Appeal Of Non-ERISA Disability Case

    CINCINNATI — Seeking reversal or at least remand of a decision upholding denial of her claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a project director who stopped working because of symptoms she attributed to long COVID tells the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in her Dec. 15 opening brief that the trial court used the wrong standard of review and improperly denied her request for discovery and the appellees “acted arbitrarily by failing to consider critical treating-source medical opinions, relying on a materially inaccurate medical reviewer report, and dismissing [her] well-documented subjective symptoms.”

  • December 16, 2025

    Panel Affirms Discovery Sanctions, Attorney Fees Award In Divorce Proceeding

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a California woman’s motions for sanctions and an award of need-based attorney fees against her ex-husband, a California appellate panel ruled, finding that his repeated failure to comply with discovery requests and orders, as well as a disparity in the divorced couple’s respective financial situations, made the awards “fair, reasonable and appropriate.”

  • December 16, 2025

    Railroad Wants Blood Draw, Genetic Testing In Mesothelioma Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A woman with a family history of cancer, including mesothelioma, put her medical condition in play by filing her take-home exposure suit and the court should order a blood draw to allow for whole genome sequencing that can provide potentially dispositive evidence of the cause of her disease, a railroad told a federal judge in Louisiana in a motion to compel.

  • December 15, 2025

    Supreme Court Passes On Certiorari Petition Over Witness Preclusion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 15 declined to grant review to a petition in which a man convicted of Medicare fraud asked the high court to reverse the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a trial court’s decision to preclude last minute testimony from “an unindicted co-conspirator.”

  • December 11, 2025

    LTD Claimant Is Granted Limited Discovery Outside Administrative Record

    TAMPA, Fla. — Saying that the “parties agree to limit the scope of discovery to the issues identified in” Cerrito v. Liberty Life Assurance Co., a Florida federal magistrate judge granted a long-term disability (LTD) claimant’s request for discovery outside the administrative record in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit.

  • December 10, 2025

    Judge Won’t Compel Mortgage Firm’s Discovery Responses In Data Breach Suit

    DALLAS — A Texas federal judge concluded that most of the discovery sought by a putative class in a consolidated lawsuit over a mortgage servicer’s 2023 data breach did not pertain to the topic of class certification, to which discovery was presently limited, leading him to deny the plaintiffs’ motion to compel production of requested documents or to provide a corporate designee to answer questions on topics the judge deemed irrelevant.

  • December 09, 2025

    W.Va. Federal Judge Schedules Hearing To Consider Discovery Order in Opioid Case

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal judge on Dec. 9 scheduled a hearing to consider two motions filed by a pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) facing allegations that its actions contributed to an “oversupply” of prescription opioids throughout West Virginia, asking the court to reconsider and issue an emergency stay of the court’s order that compelled the PBM to release nationwide prescription and remuneration data.

  • December 09, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Discovery Stay, Fee Denial In Civil Forfeiture Case

    NEW YORK — Ruling against the appellant on all points except the one regarding which the U.S. government conceded that it had erred, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed that a five-month discovery stay in a civil forfeiture action did not constitute a violation of the appellant’s due process rights and that his request for attorney fees and costs under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA) was properly denied.

  • December 09, 2025

    Recap Of Some Major Rulings And Developments In AI-Copyright Cases In 2025

    It has been more than five years since a news organization filed the first lawsuit challenging the training of artificial intelligence using copyrighted material.  Since that time, there have been dozens of similar suits filed, the creation of multidistrict litigation, certification of a class action, several ground-breaking rulings and one potentially precedent-setting settlement.  This story looks at some of the biggest developments in the litigation in 2025 and where those cases stand now.

  • December 08, 2025

    In 5-2 Ruling, Minnesota High Court Affirms Conviction Reversal Over DNA Swab

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — In a 5-2 ruling concerning a warrantless buccal swab that was used for a DNA test, the Minnesota Supreme Court overruled a 1998 decision and partly overruled a 1985 decision, concluding in part that “neither the inevitable discovery nor the good-faith exceptions to the exclusionary rule apply.”

  • December 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Affirms OpenAI Must Produce 20 Million ChatGPT Chat Logs

    SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. defendants must produce 20 million ChatGPT outputs in a consolidated copyright action against it, a magistrate judge in New York affirmed in denying a motion for reconsideration after finding the evidence relevant and proportionate.

  • December 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Orders OpenAI To Produce Dataset-Deletion Communications

    NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. entities waived any attorney-client privilege protecting communications by offering shifting positions that resulted in the disclosure of some of the purportedly privileged reasons for the deletions and by putting their state of mind at issue, a federal magistrate judge in New York said in ordering production of the evidence.

  • December 03, 2025

    Discovery Inadequacy Prompts Partial Grant Of Motion To Compel In $250M Asset Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Chancery Court partially granted a motion to compel in a dispute over a complex asset-swap arrangement referred to as the “Agera transactions” that the plaintiffs allege resulted in the “dissipation of at least $250 million,” finding that the plaintiffs’ discovery responses, which include untimely and inadequate privilege logs, are deficient under Delaware law and warrant multiple waivers and compelled production.

  • December 02, 2025

    Standing Is Focus Of High Court Argument In Suit Over Pregnancy Center Subpoena

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Dec. 2 in a dispute concerning the New Jersey attorney general’s subpoena for information including the identity of pregnancy center donors, with the petitioner contending that the center operator had standing to sue in federal court as soon as the subpoena was issued and the respondent countering that standing requirements are still unsatisfied.

  • December 02, 2025

    4th Circuit Revives Part Of Detainee’s Suit, Rules That Evidence Was Admissible

    RICHMOND, Va. — Concluding in part that some of the trial court’s evidentiary decisions were wrong, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment against the appellant on several counts in his suit alleging that several serious blood clots were attributable to a lack of proper medical care while he was a pretrial detainee in county jails.

  • December 01, 2025

    Discovery Motion Denied For Lack Of Good Cause In FCA Suit Over Coding ‘Fraud’

    NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge denied a motion by insurer Anthem Inc. seeking to serve a request for production (RFP) on the U.S. government in its suit against Anthem alleging violations of the federal 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 Anthem failed to show good cause for the RFP request.

  • December 01, 2025

    Louisiana High Court Lets Sealed Ex Parte Subpoenas Stand Pending Determination

    NEW ORLEANS — With a Louisiana Supreme Court panel issuing a partial reversal and remand that drew one concurrence and three dissents in a per curiam ruling granting a request for a supervisory writ, the majority let an order sealing ex parte subpoenas duces tecum stand “until the trial court has ruled on remand.”

  • November 26, 2025

    Judge Halts DOJ From Obtaining Minors’ Gender Dysphoria Treatment Info

    PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Department of Justice will not be permitted to obtain the personal information of minors seeking treatment for gender-affirming care from a Philadelphia hospital, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled, granting the hospital’s motion to limit a subpoena in which the DOJ sought information about certain drugs and treatments.