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Mealey's Discovery

  • April 30, 2025

    New York High Court Denies Appeal In Asbestos Subpoena, Instructions Case

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — The New York Court of Appeals denied motion for leave to appeal in an asbestos case, turning away a challenge to a trial judge’s ruling quashing a subpoena seeking corporate testimony about events 50 years prior and a separate opinion affirming rejection of a jury instruction on an employer’s potential role as an intervening cause of a man’s mesothelioma.

  • April 29, 2025

    Magistrate: Relator Must Provide All Alleged False Claims In FCA Kickback Suit

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal magistrate judge granted Abbott Laboratories’ motion to compel discovery into all the alleged false claims it purportedly submitted to the government in a suit alleging Abbott violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and state false claim laws regarding Abbott’s purported kickback scheme to induce hospitals and physicians to use an Abbott cardiac medical device, finding that Abbott is “entitled to know the specific false claims” against it.

  • April 28, 2025

    Citing Presumption Of Access, 6th Circuit Vacates Order Keeping Transcripts Sealed

    CINCINNATI — A trial court’s failure to explain why it maintained the seal on certain deposition transcripts in a settled securities lawsuit is not sufficient to overcome the presumption of openness in litigation, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a ruling partly denying an intervenor newspaper’s motion to unseal the documents in the lawsuit, which was closed more than two years ago, and remanding for the lower court to make the proper determination “as to whether any parts of those transcripts meet the requirements for a seal.”

  • April 25, 2025

    Nebraska High Court: Any Error In Sex Assault Discovery Sanction Was Harmless

    LINCOLN, Neb. — Affirming a man’s conviction for sexually assaulting his underage stepdaughter, the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected the defendant’s claim of prejudice from a trial court’s imposition of a discovery sanction, finding that if there was any error by the lower court, it was harmless and would not have affected the conviction.

  • April 25, 2025

    Inmate Tells Supreme Court Obtaining Attorney-Client Calls Violates 6th Amendment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An inmate whose calls to his attorney were overheard and obtained by prosecutors filed a petition for certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to find that such intentional intrusion into the attorney-client relationship violated his rights under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • April 24, 2025

    J&J Entity Wants Talc-Only Meso Study Participants Revealed

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Pecos River Talc LLC asked a federal judge to compel three asbestos experts to produce the identities of 75 study participants who reportedly developed mesothelioma solely after exposure to consumer talc products, saying the evidence is necessary to the prosecution of its injurious falsehood claim and that no privacy issue or law precludes identification.

  • April 22, 2025

    3rd Circuit Finds Sealing Of Documents In Bankruptcy Suits Governed By Statute

    PHILADELPHIA — The standard for sealing or unsealing a court document under a protective order in bankruptcy proceedings is determined by Section 107 of the bankruptcy code, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, remanding a bankruptcy court’s discovery order for consideration under the statute rather than under the common-law standard.

  • April 22, 2025

    Anthropic Says AI Copyright Action Too Unwieldy For Class Certification

    SAN FRANCISCO — An artificial intelligence copyright class action spans a century, would include more than five million works owned by various people, trusts and other entities and would require the court to decide ownership millions of times over, a company tells a federal judge in California in an opposition to certification.  In a separate letter brief, Anthropic PBC tells the court that the plaintiffs were misrepresenting a court’s order and the course and timing of discovery.

  • April 22, 2025

    Discovery Spat In Bad Faith Indemnity Row Involves Reserve, Reinsurance Information

    STATESVILLE, N.C. — In a reply brief urging a North Carolina federal court to compel certain discovery, the plaintiff in a bad faith suit over an excess liability insurer’s alleged duty to indemnify argues, among other things, that the insurer “makes bare assertions that reserve information and communications with reinsurers are subject to attorney-client privilege or attorney work product protection on a categorical basis.”

  • April 22, 2025

    Talc Tort Funding Targets Must Respond To Subpoena, Magistrate Judge Says

    JACKSON, Miss. — A federal magistrate judge in Alabama granted in a text-only order a motion for reconsideration of a stay of discovery in a dispute between asbestos-talc law firms and then issued a written order denying a motion for a protective order and said nonparty litigation funding sources must respond to subpoenas.

  • April 18, 2025

    California Supreme Court Grants Motion To Dismiss Genetic Testing Petition

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court on April 17 granted an unopposed motion to dismiss a petition for review contending that a trial court improperly evaluated a motion to conduct simple and potentially conclusive genetic testing in a mesothelioma sufferer’s asbestos case under the standard for admissibility when it should have done so under the standard for relevance.

  • April 17, 2025

    Colorado High Court: Discovery Sought In Hospital Lien Class Suit Isn’t Relevant

    DENVER — In its second time considering a trial court’s order compelling discovery responses from an accident victim, the Colorado Supreme Court determined that the items sought by a hospital operator were not relevant to the plaintiff’s class claims under Colorado’s hospital lien statute and were not proportional to the needs of the case.

  • April 17, 2025

    Beasley Allen Firm Says Stay Of Discovery Impedes Talc-Funding Case

    JACKSON, Miss. — Staying discovery into relevant evidence of litigation funding threatens the completeness of an amended complaint that must be filed in less than a month, an asbestos-talc law firm says in a motion for reconsideration.

  • April 17, 2025

    Plaintiffs Lack DUFTA Standing, Insurance Holding Company Says In Delaware Court

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Arguing that the plaintiffs in a putative class suit lack standing to bring a Delaware Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (DUFTA) claim, an insurance holding company and its affiliates seek summary judgment in the Delaware Chancery Court over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits.

  • April 17, 2025

    Utah High Court: Rape Victim Can’t Be Required To Testify In Evidentiary Hearing

    SALT LAKE CITY — A trial court erred in denying a purported rape victim’s motion to quash a subpoena compelling her testimony at an evidentiary hearing, the Utah Supreme Court ruled, holding that the state’s “rape shield law” allows a victim to attend such a hearing, at which the admissibility of evidence will be decided, without requiring participation or testimony.

  • April 17, 2025

    Cypriot Company Seeks Sanctions For Iraqi Government Entities In $120M Award Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Cypriot construction company filed a motion for contempt sanctions in District of Columbia federal court due to the failure to comply with asset discovery requests by the Republic of Iraq and two government entities against whom the court previously enforced an arbitral award worth more than $120 million award.

  • April 15, 2025

    Nevada High Court: Man Who Had Politicians Investigated May Not Remain Anonymous

    LAS VEGAS — In a one-paragraph order, the Nevada Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of prohibition by a John Doe who claimed that he had a right under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to proceed anonymously after he was sued for invasion of privacy by two local politicians who were surveilled by a private investigator he hired.

  • April 14, 2025

    Magistrate Outlines Authority Under DOJ Communication Services Subpoenas

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request for nondisclosure orders (NDO) to prevent two providers of electronic communication services from notifying anyone of grand jury witness subpoenas of the providers for two years, a Virginia federal magistrate judge issued an order stating that the court has the authority to refuse to enter an NDO if it believes the “subpoena requests more information than authorized by the Stored Communications Act.”

  • April 11, 2025

    Residents Say Motion To Compel Discovery In Lead-Tainted Water Case Fails

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Residents who sued Benton Harbor, Mich., and its officials over lead contamination in the drinking water have filed a response brief in Michigan federal court arguing that the court should deny a motion to compel discovery on grounds the motion was filed before the parties reached an impasse, which the plaintiffs argue is a violation of local and federal rules.

  • April 09, 2025

    4th Circuit Wants Response To Motion To Dismiss Expert Subpoena Appeal

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asked for a response to a motion to dismiss an appeal of a ruling quashing a subpoena targeting an asbestos expert after the target of that subpoena said dismissal of the underlying action mooted the issue.

  • April 09, 2025

    Magistrate Grants Wells Fargo’s Motion To Withhold Discovery In $300M Ponzi Suit

    MIAMI — A Florida federal magistrate judge granted in part Wells Fargo’s motion to withhold discovery in a putative class action alleging that Wells Fargo aided and abetted fraud in a “massive” Ponzi scheme purportedly orchestrated by owners of insurers, some of which are now in receivership, resulting in elderly investor victims losing more than $300 million after scheme operators sold them promissory notes secured by collateral in stranger-oriented life insurance policies (STOLIs).

  • April 07, 2025

    Plaintiffs Lay Out Witness Timeline After Remand Of Asbestos Case

    LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs tell a federal judge in California that they were mistaken about when they sought out and identified co-workers after the judge questioned the timing in a ruling finding that a stipulation eliminating liability arising from government work and government contractor and immunity defenses stripped the case of federal jurisdiction and that the action’s complexity warranted remanding it to a Los Angeles County court.

  • April 07, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Rules On Discovery Dispute In Toe Cartilage Implant Device Case

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal magistrate judge granted in part a man’s motion to compel the manufacturer of a synthetic cartilage implant (SCI) device used to treat arthritis in a toe joint to compel discovery of documents relating to similar incidents.

  • April 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge: OpenAI’s Definition Of Competitor ‘Wildly Overbroad’

    NEW YORK — OpenAI entities’ portrayal of a small Chilean company working on artificial intelligence language bias as a competitor is “wildly overbroad” and would render anyone working in the field of AI a competitor, a federal magistrate judge in New York said in denying a protective order seeking to shield certain documents from an expert witness.

  • April 04, 2025

    9th Circuit Reverses Denial Of Discovery Of Online Article Author’s Identity

    SAN FRANCISCO — A district court erred in denying a foreign party’s request for discovery to learn the identities of the author of a purportedly defamatory online article and the operator of a website where it was posted, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding that the court wrongly based its denial on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution without determining whether any such rights were implicated.