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Mealey's Discovery

  • August 26, 2025

    More Discovery Briefing Ordered In Human Serum Albumin Infringement Fight

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A federal magistrate in Kansas found that three related biopharmaceutical entities in a patent infringement dispute over the production of plant-derived recombinant human serum albumin (rHSA) must make supplemental responses to requests from another biopharmaceutical entity for certain discovery documents, holding that their objection to the motion to compel could not be squared with their claim to have supplied all responsive documents.

  • August 26, 2025

    Asbestos Trusts, Defendants Brief Court’s Power To Preserve Claims Data

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Asbestos bankruptcy trusts and key defendants in litigation over trust documents filed supplemental briefs detailing whether the Delaware Chancery Court’s equitable powers enable it to order preservation of claims data.

  • August 26, 2025

    Idaho High Court Reverses Real Estate Row Dismissal, Schools Parties On Discovery

    BOISE, Idaho — A trial court’s apparent lack of analysis in granting summary judgment to the defendants in a real estate sale and development dispute led the Idaho Supreme Court to reverse and remand, while a plethora of discovery errors motivated the court to offer a primer of discovery procedures and requirements.

  • August 11, 2025

    South Carolina Court Set To Consider New Trial Order In Asbestos-Talc Case

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Court of Appeals asked for the record on appeal and all final briefs and is set to decide whether a judge properly granted plaintiffs a new trial after they allegedly produced new evidence in an asbestos-talc case.

  • August 25, 2025

    Discovery, Summary Judgment Rulings Vacated In Securities Row Against Reinsurer

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a lower court’s discovery and summary judgment rulings in investors’ suit against a reinsurer and three former executives over allegations that they violated federal securities laws by omitting historical loss ratios from loss reserves disclosures, finding those omitted historical loss ratios to be material and that discovery had not been completed.

  • August 25, 2025

    9th Circuit Grants Mandamus Relief Regarding Discovery Order Related To Meta MDL

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 22 granted in part a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by the attorney general of California and joined by other state attorneys generals seeking to direct a district court to grant the state attorney general’s objections to a discovery order requiring them to produce specified documents in a product liability multidistrict litigation over the purported addictive qualities for adolescents of several of the largest social media platforms, including Meta Platforms Inc.

  • August 22, 2025

    Pregnancy Center To High Court: Federal Suit Doesn’t Require State Court Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Aug. 21 merits brief, a nonprofit, faith-based pregnancy center asks the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the center’s constitutional challenge of a government investigative subpoena seeking donors’ personal information is not ripe because a state court had not ruled on the matter.

  • August 22, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Sanctions On 2 Attorneys In Bob Dylan Assault Case

    NEW YORK — Counsel representing a purported sexual abuse victim in a now-dismissed lawsuit against musician Bob Dylan were properly sanctioned for “failure to meet their discovery obligations,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, finding no abuse of discretion in a trial court’s decision to impose $8,000 in sanctions on the two attorneys.

  • August 22, 2025

    Agent Ordered To Comply With Discovery Request In Mineral Rights Dispute

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal magistrate judge in Ohio has ordered an agent with a company that owns land that is the subject of a mineral rights dispute to respond to discovery requests made by a drilling operator, ruling that many of the requested communications between the agent and his wife are not protected by Ohio’s marital communications privilege.

  • August 21, 2025

    Trio Of Rulings Leaves Depositions Proceeding, Reduces Scope Of Another

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California allowed a reduced deposition of a corporate representative, saying there was no way to adequately prepare the witness on 73 topics in the time left but in a pair of docket-only orders declined to stay the deposition of two experts, finding that proceeding would not impose irreparable prejudice, the request did not comply with local rules and any stay would derail the trial date.

  • August 21, 2025

    Apex Doctrine At Issue In Mandamus Petition Over Zuckerberg Deposition

    SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms Inc. asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to grant its petition for mandamus and provide guidance on application of the apex doctrine as the tech company seeks to avoid a lower court’s order that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg be deposed in a suit over the purported collection of Facebook users’ protected health information (PHI).

  • August 19, 2025

    PBM Asks For Order Barring Ex Parte Communications After Email Error In Opioid MDL

    CLEVELAND — A pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) involved in the opioid multidistrict litigation pending in a federal court in Ohio moved for an order “prohibiting ex parte communications between the Special Masters and the Court regarding the Special Masters’ rulings.”

  • August 18, 2025

    Expert Used AI, Submitted Fake Cites, Quotes, State Defendants Say

    BATON ROUGE, La. — An expert who submitted dozens of fake articles and quotations likely created by artificial intelligence can never be found to be competent or reliable and must be excluded by the court, state officials defending an age verification law tell a federal judge in Louisiana in an Aug. 15 motion.

  • August 18, 2025

    Discovery Stay Denied In Suit Between Insurer, Ex-CEO Over Legal Bills Dispute

    DALLAS — A Texas federal judge denied a motion to stay discovery pending resolution of a former insurance CEO’s motions for partial summary judgment on advancement of incurred legal fees and dismissal of his former employer’s counterclaims, stating that “neither the breadth nor the burden of discovery warrants a stay” in the case, which is centered on allegations that the former CEO manipulated the insurer’s claims reserves, resulting in financial losses from a terminated loss portfolio transfer (LPT) reinsurance contract.

  • August 18, 2025

    Insurer, Property Owner Seek Protective Order In Suit Over Defective Workmanship

    PHOENIX — An excess commercial insurer and an apartment complex owner asked an Arizona federal court to issue a protective order as to discovery in the insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaration that an underlying $6 million stipulated judgment arising from defective workmanship claims cannot be enforced against it.

  • August 18, 2025

    Judge Says Jury Can Hear Hysterectomy Evidence In Asbestos-Talc Case

    LOS ANGELES — A judge in Los Angeles set trial for Aug. 25 after denying a motion to exclude testimony that a woman’s mesothelioma spread to her ovaries necessitating a hysterectomy, saying the defendants may cross-examine any experts and physicians about the need for the procedure.

  • August 18, 2025

    5th Circuit Affirms Discovery Sanctions For Uninformed Deposition Witness

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed discovery sanctions, including $31,836.70 in attorney fees, against a Mexican national after the owner of a Texas home where the national lives responded to a deposition notice by sending a sales representative who couldn’t answer questions about the purchase of the home; in a separate but related appeal, the same panel affirmed the trial court’s denial of the national’s motion to quash a subpoena for foreign discovery.

  • August 15, 2025

    Man: J&J Can’t Revoke Talc Documents’ Authenticity Agreement After Discovery

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Johnson & Johnson entities avoided formal discovery by agreeing to acknowledge the authenticity of produced business records in more than 40 asbestos cases and should not now be allowed to revoke that admission after the close of discovery in one of the cases, a man tells a judge in Connecticut in an Aug. 14 motion.

  • August 15, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Co-Ownership Of ‘Zioness’ Mark, Vacates Fee Denial

    NEW YORK — A panel in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a federal jury’s finding that two pro-Zionist advocacy groups were the co-owners of the trademark “Zioness,” holding that sufficient evidence supported a finding that there was overlap of use of the mark before its registration.

  • August 14, 2025

    Texas Federal Judge Rejects Fees For Microsoft After Patent Judgment

    AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas denied Microsoft Corp.’s motion for attorney fees in a patent infringement suit filed against it, despite a federal magistrate judge’s recommendation that Microsoft’s motion be partially granted; the judge disagreed with the magistrate judge’s assessment that the plaintiff company’s post-discovery conduct did not justify finding that the case was “exceptional.”

  • August 13, 2025

    E-Cig Maker To High Court: Federal Circuit Gets Patent Damages Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Electronic cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for a writ of certiorari that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a jury’s award of more than $95 million in damages for infringing on another company’s tobacco pod technology conflicts with Supreme Court precedent on the apportionment of damages in patent infringement cases.

  • August 12, 2025

    Magistrate Judge: Nonparty Microsoft Must Produce Licensing Info In AI Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — Nonparty Microsoft Corp. must produce documents related to artificial intelligence training material licensing deals because the evidence goes to the existence of any market for that material and to the potential damages the class of authors suffered, a federal magistrate judge in California said in consolidated litigation involving MosaicML Inc. and Databricks Inc.

  • August 12, 2025

    Magistrate Judge: Nonparty Microsoft Must Produce Licensing Info In AI Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — Nonparty Microsoft Corp. must produce documents related to artificial intelligence training material licensing deals because the evidence goes to the existence of any market for that material and to the potential damages the class of authors suffered, a federal magistrate judge in California said in consolidated litigation involving MosaicML Inc. and Databricks Inc.

  • August 12, 2025

    Parties Ordered To Explain Failure To Provide Pharmacy Records In Suboxone MDL

    CLEVELAND — The judge overseeing the Suboxone film multidistrict litigation ordered certain defendants to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with a discovery order.

  • August 12, 2025

    South Carolina Court Set To Consider New Trial Order In Asbestos-Talc Case

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Court of Appeals asked for the record on appeal and all final briefs and is set to decide whether a judge properly granted plaintiffs a new trial after they allegedly produced new evidence in an asbestos-talc case.