Mealey's Discovery

  • July 11, 2025

    Judge Issues ‘Admonition’ To Amazon Regarding Privilege Log In FTC Suit Over Prime

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on July 10 issued an “admonition” in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s motion seeking sanctions against Amazon.com Inc. for Amazon’s alleged use of its privilege log to hide evidence in a suit accusing Amazon and its officers of tricking customers into enrolling in the Amazon Prime service.

  • July 10, 2025

    Experts Must Produce Names Of Meso Study Subjects To J&J Spinoff, Magistrate Says

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Plaintiffs’ asbestos experts accused of trade libel by Johnson & Johnson spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC must produce the names of mesothelioma study participants because their identities “are relevant, proportional to the needs of the case, and are not privileged,” a Virginia federal magistrate judge ruled.

  • July 10, 2025

    Panel Vacates Bank Worker’s Vaccine Exemption Denial, Affirms Discovery Sanctions

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel determined, in partially vacating and remanding a federal judge’s order, “that disputed issues of material fact preclude summary judgment” on one of two New York bank employees’ claims that her religious beliefs exempted her from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine after the employees were terminated for not getting vaccinated to return to work after the pandemic but agreed that the judge was correct in imposing discovery sanctions related to the employees’ lawsuit alleging religious freedom, First Amendment and Title VII violations.

  • July 09, 2025

    Device Maker Tells High Court Shortened Discovery Timeline Tainted Patent Trial

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A medical product company tells the U.S. Supreme Court that a North Carolina federal court violated its due process rights by changing both the time to trial and the time for discovery in a patent infringement case for which the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has already ordered a new trial.

  • July 08, 2025

    Parties Outline Discovery Positions For Phase II Of ESOP Lawsuit

    PHOENIX — Litigation continues in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a $105 million employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal after a bench trial, with a joint filing in Arizona federal court where the parties dispute whether a recreational vehicle company should participate in “Phase II” discovery.

  • July 07, 2025

    Asbestos-Talc Company Wants Full Genetic Testing Of Mesothelioma Sufferer

    LOS ANGELES — Having successfully blocked a 40-year-old mesothelioma sufferer’s attempt to gain trial preference, an asbestos-talc defendant asked a California judge to compel full genetic testing, saying it was the only way to get to the heart of causation and damages in the case.

  • July 07, 2025

    States Back Asbestos Defendants Seeking To Stop Trust Document Destruction

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Ten states in an amicus curiae brief tell a judge in Delaware that destruction of asbestos trust documents would encourage fraud and mismanagement and undercut state laws determining that such evidence is relevant and discoverable in pending and potential asbestos personal injury suits.

  • July 03, 2025

    Ghanaian Insurer Sends Letters Rogatory In Reinsurance Breach Of Contract Row

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on July 2 directed the issuance of letters rogatory to a Ghanaian insurer and three of its employees to acquire otherwise unobtainable information as part of a gold mining equipment dispute over whether the defendants are direct insurers or reinsurers of the plaintiffs.

  • July 03, 2025

    Oklahoma High Court: Execution Drug Info Is Privileged By Law

    OKLAHOMA CITY — A trial court correctly found that information a man sought from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) is privileged under a state confidentiality law and not susceptible to discovery under the Oklahoma Open Records Act (ORA), an Oklahoma Supreme Court majority ruled, also finding that a newly revised version of the confidentiality law further confirmed this and is not unconstitutional.

  • July 03, 2025

    Report Advising Sanctions For Lost Text Messages Accepted In Insurance Coverage Row

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge accepted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation advising granting sanctions only as to an adverse inference instruction related to the purported destruction of text messages by an 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.”

  • July 02, 2025

    High Court Rejects Micron’s Mandamus Bid To Protect Source Code

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an American chip maker’s request for relief from a California federal judge’s discovery order requiring it to turn its source code over to a Chinese rival in a patent infringement dispute.

  • June 30, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Dispute Over 4th Amendment Search Of Financial Records

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its June 30 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to a bitcoin user on his question over whether the Internal Revenue Service violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with the warrantless seizure of users’ financial records from a digital currency exchange.

  • June 30, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Upholds Default Judgment As Discovery Sanction In Shipping Act Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) properly entered default judgment against a shipping company that refused to comply with its discovery orders in a lawsuit brought against it by a client under the Shipping Act of 1984 (SA).

  • June 27, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Discovery For Use In U.K. Fraud Suit Over $3.7 Billion Estate

    NEW YORK — A New York federal court properly granted the wife and daughter of a wealthy, deceased businessman to serve a discovery subpoena on a financial organization for use in a fraud lawsuit in the United Kingdom, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding that the subpoena complied with the guidelines of U.S. Code Title 28 Section 1782 for discovery to be used in a foreign proceeding or tribunal.

  • June 27, 2025

    Parties Dismiss 1 Insurer In N.C. Coverage Suit Arising From Opioid Epidemic

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Insureds and one insurer filed a joint stipulation asking a North Carolina court to dismiss the claims and counterclaims between them in a coverage dispute arising from the opioid epidemic.

  • June 27, 2025

    6th Circuit Remands Chili’s Manager’s ADEA Claim, Says Employer Report Inadmissible

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a fired Chili’s general manager’s “own recollection” of the details of his termination, which differs from those outlined in a now-inadmissible report, and the fact that he was replaced by a much younger employee serve as evidence for an age discrimination claim in reversing and remanding a Tennessee federal court’s order that granted summary judgment to his employer.

  • June 26, 2025

    Nebraska High Court Affirms Default Judgment, Attorney Fee Sanctions In Fraud Row

    LINCOLN, Neb. — Noting a trial court’s finding that a group of parties accused of fraud engaged in “repeated discovery violations” and “inexcusable recalcitrance,” the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld an award of more than $2 million in default judgment for the plaintiff-appellees, as well as an attorney fees award exceeding $180,000.

  • June 23, 2025

    High Court Won’t Review Discovery Ruling In ERISA Health Benefit Denial Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in its June 23 order list denied a petition to review an Employee Retirement Income Security Act discovery ruling in favor of a multiemployer health plan; the petitioner had argued that the “decision exacerbates both the ongoing split between Circuits as to determining what a plan administrator must do in order to satisfy its fiduciary obligation to perform a full and fair review, as well as the inconsistent factors that courts employ in order to determine whether discovery should be permitted,” and the plan countered that the decision shows only “the routine exercise of judicial discretion in applying the same rule to differing facts.”

  • June 23, 2025

    After Claims Of Info Sharing For Class Actions, OIG To Look At DOL Practices

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Plans have been revealed for an Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit of “how the U.S. Department of Labor [DOL] has shared investigative information with non-governmental entities involved in class action litigation and the extent of any related controls.”

  • June 18, 2025

    Monsanto Says School District Not Entitled To Additional Depositions Of Witnesses

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — Monsanto Co. filed a reply brief in Vermont federal court on June 17, arguing that a school district’s opposition to the company’s motion to quash the district’s Rule 30(b)(6) notice for deposition and motion for a protective order fails. Monsanto also contends that the district has already been given a “full and fair opportunity to explore” the topics about which it seeks information in its current notice of deposition.

  • June 18, 2025

    Meta Must Provide Privacy Plaintiffs With Analyses Of Users’ Time On Facebook

    SAN FRANCISCO — A putative class of Facebook users who sued Meta Platforms Inc. over the purported sharing of their protected health information (PHI) via its pixel tool are entitled to certain analyses and reports correlating users’ time spent on the social network with Meta’s revenue, a California federal magistrate judge ruled, finding the requested info relevant to the plaintiffs’ proposed damages theory.

  • June 18, 2025

    Plaintiff Cites N.Y. Federal Ruling In Discovery Row Involving Reinsurance Info

    STATESVILLE, N.C. — The plaintiff in a bad faith suit over an excess liability insurer’s alleged duty to indemnify has filed a notice of supplemental authority in which it directs the attention of a North Carolina federal court to a New York federal court ruling that it says “held that reserve and reinsurance information is discoverable in an insurance coverage action.”

  • June 17, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Quash Of Brazilian Oil Firm’s Discovery Subpoena On JPMorgan

    NEW YORK — A Brazilian oil company that sought discovery of documents from JPMorgan Chase & Co. for use in foreign proceedings did not establish that the financial firm had control over the items sought, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found, affirming a lower court’s decision to quash a discovery subpoena served on the firm.

  • June 16, 2025

    Supreme Court Will Consider Pregnancy Center’s Jurisdictional Question

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 granted certiorari to an anti-abortion pregnancy center on its question of whether constitutional challenges to an investigative subpoena demanding the names of donors must first be adjudicated by a state court before they are ripe for federal court review.

  • June 16, 2025

    Slain Inmate’s Mother’s Suit Settlement Mooted Discovery Quest, 6th Circuit Rules

    CINCINNATI — Because the mother of a murdered prison inmate settled her claims against the prison and other parties, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the voluntary dismissal of her lawsuit mooted an unresolved discovery matter in the trial court, leading the panel to dismiss her appeal.