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Mealey's Discovery

  • January 09, 2026

    Texas Panel Denies Fracking Operator Relief From Order To Produce Documents

    HOUSTON — A Texas appellate panel has denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by a hydraulic fracturing operator in a dispute with royalty owners over an audit of wells, refusing to grant the fracking company relief from two requests that require production of documents relating to 3,000 wells over a period of eight years.

  • January 09, 2026

    Ky. High Court: Factual Parts Of Hospital’s Fall Analysis Exempt From Disclosure

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky trial court erred when it required a hospital to produce factual portions of a root cause analysis following a patient’s fall as that information is privileged, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate panel’s writ prohibiting a trial court from enforcing its discovery order as to those portions of the document.

  • January 08, 2026

    Juul Reaches ‘Agreement’ With NJOY Over Disputed Docs In Vape Patent Case

    PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Jan. 7 ordered Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), NJOY LLC, Altria Group Inc. and affiliates to file a joint statement under seal “that describes the resolution” of a discovery dispute in a patent lawsuit after JLI said the parties reached “an agreement” relating to allegedly privileged documents JLI “inadvertently” uploaded to a public database, which NJOY described as “evidence of the fraud [JLI] committed to obtain its patents from the Patent Office.”

  • January 08, 2026

    Montana High Court Won’t Decide State’s Discovery Row In Environmental Dispute

    HELENA, Mont. — Concluding that the state of Montana did not meet the criteria necessary to seek the “extraordinary remedy” of a writ of supervisory control, the Montana Supreme Court denied the state’s petition that it filed in response to a trial court’s order compelling it to comply with a conservationist organization’s requests for production (RFPs) of documents related to the passage of a state law over single-use plastics.

  • January 08, 2026

    New Jersey Federal Judge Rebuffs Challenge To Discovery Ruling In LTD Case

    NEWARK, N.J. — Denying a long-term disability (LTD) claimant’s challenge to a discovery ruling, a New Jersey federal judge rejected his arguments that a magistrate judge erred in determining that his short-term disability (STD) “claim file was not part of the administrative record for his LTD claim” and “in denying extra-record discovery concerning Defendant’s alleged conflict of interest.”

  • January 07, 2026

    5th Circuit Affirms $400K Sanction For Leak Of Priest’s Name In Bankruptcy Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — A bankruptcy court’s finding that a lawyer leaked confidential information regarding an accused priest in violation of a protective order was supported by competent evidence, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a finding of contempt and an imposition of $400,000 in sanctions.

  • January 06, 2026

    7th Circuit Upholds Job Termination Under Contract’s Disability Clause

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed judgment for an employer in a job termination dispute with an orthopedic surgeon that hinged on “the meaning of the phrase ‘the procedures for being determined disabled’” in his employment contract, saying in a nonprecedential disposition that under Wisconsin law, the surgeon’s interpretation “is untenable.”

  • January 06, 2026

    3rd Circuit Won’t Rehear Dispute Over Arbitrability Of German Discovery Dispute

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied several third-party litigation funders’ petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a split panel’s decision addressing a question of first impression, in which the majority affirmed an order denying a bid to compel arbitration of an application for discovery for use in Germany because it said the application does not qualify as a “civil action” under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

  • January 06, 2026

    Split 9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Federal Worker RIF Discovery Ruling

    SAN FRANCISCO — The two remaining members of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 5 denied a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by federal government parties who challenged the panel majority’s September ruling that denied the government’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to require the trial court to vacate a discovery order requiring in camera production of reduction-in-force (RIF) and reorganization plans for federal agencies; a full court vote was requested on the petition for rehearing en banc but failed to receive a majority of the votes.

  • January 06, 2026

    OpenAI Can’t Escape Production Of 20M Chat Logs, Judge Affirms

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York affirmed two rulings by a magistrate judge requiring OpenAI entities to produce 20 million ChatGPT logs after finding that she didn’t ignore privacy concerns or potentially less burdensome production options.

  • January 05, 2026

    Federal Workers’ Privacy Suit Over OPM ‘Test’ Emails Dismissed For No Jurisdiction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a putative class complaint by federal workers suing under pseudonyms who alleged that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) failed to conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment (PIA) before allegedly sending out “test” emails the workers claimed were being used to collect information on them.

  • 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.