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Mealey's Discovery

  • February 24, 2021

    Zoom Must Produce Documents Related To Encryption In Consolidated Privacy Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the latest in a series of discovery rulings related to requests for production (RFPs) served upon Zoom Video Communications Inc. by users of its cyber-meeting platform, a California federal magistrate judge on Feb. 23 partly ruled in favor of Zoom, deeming documents related to certain third-party apps to not be relevant to claims over purported data sharing and hacking incidents.

  • February 19, 2021

    Extra-Record Discovery Not Warranted In Disability Dispute, Magistrate Judge Says

    WICHITA, Kan. — A Kansas federal magistrate judge on Feb. 16 denied a disability claimant’s motion to conduct discovery after determining that the claimant failed to show that any exceptional circumstances exist that would warrant extra-record discovery.

  • February 19, 2021

    Credit Unions Oppose Sonic’s Subpoena For Documents From Arby’s Data Breach Suit

    CLEVELAND — The lead financial institution (FI) plaintiffs in a consolidated class action over a 2017 data breach experienced by Sonic Corp. filed a motion in Ohio federal court on Feb. 10, seeking to quash Sonic’s subpoena for documents in a data breach suit against fellow fast food chain Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc., characterizing the subpoena as an attempt “to circumvent the legal process for obtaining class member discovery” and arguing that the documents sought are irrelevant and privileged.

  • February 18, 2021

    Boston Financial Group To Comply With Asset Discovery For Award Against Kazakhstan

    BOSTON — A Boston financial advisory company and Moldovan businessmen and their companies on Feb. 17 filed a joint motion for a protective order regarding discovery into the Republic of Kazakhstan’s assets that are being sought to satisfy an arbitral award worth more than $500 million after a Massachusetts federal magistrate judge recommended denying the company’s motion for clarification or reconsideration of an earlier order approving limited discovery.

  • February 16, 2021

    Company:  Motion To Compel Depositions Should Be Quashed As ‘An Undue Burden’

    SAN ANTONIO — An equipment company on Feb. 11 moved in Texas federal court to quash depositions sought by a hydraulic fracturing sand company on grounds that it has not established the necessity of the depositions and that the proposed schedule for conducting them is “simply unworkable.”  The equipment company maintains that the entire process is “meant to be nothing more than an undue burden to and annoyance of Defendant.”

  • February 12, 2021

    Panel Affirms Denial Of Insurers’ Motion To Compel Discovery In Suit Against NFL

    ALBANY, N.Y. — A New York appeals panel on Feb. 11 affirmed a lower court’s denial of  insurers' motions to compel discovery of the National Football League’s defense and settlement materials from underlying lawsuits alleging that it negligently failed to protect former players from brain injuries purportedly caused by concussive head impact, finding that the policies’ cooperation clauses did not operate as waivers of the insured’s attorney-client and work product privileges.

  • February 12, 2021

    Federal Judge Denies WYO Insurer’s Motion To Exclude Insureds’ Designated Expert

    BATON ROUGE, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana on Feb. 10 denied a Write-Your-Own (WYO) insurer’s motion to exclude the plaintiffs’ designated expert in a consolidated flood coverage dispute, finding that the insured’s motion is “substantively identical” to another insurer’s motion in limine in lawsuits that present common questions of fact and law and arise out of the same flood.

  • February 11, 2021

    High Court Urged To Not Review ‘Minor Circuit Split’ Over Section 1782

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Boeing Co. and Rolls-Royce PLC urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a Feb. 10 brief to not grant certiorari sought by an engine parts manufacturer because the circuit split over whether the federal statute governing judicial assistance in discovery for foreign and international tribunals is “shallow” and the underlying arbitration will likely be rendered moot before the high court can issue a ruling.

  • February 10, 2021

    Google Must Produce Some Documents In Suit Over App, Analytics Data Collection

    SAN FRANCISCO — Mostly denying plaintiffs’ requests to compel production from Google LLC in a putative class action over the company’s purported unauthorized collection of user data via its analytics service and Firebase software development kit (SDK), a California federal magistrate judge on Feb. 8, however, found that discovery of documents related to Google’s “Web & App Activity” (WAA) settings were relevant.

  • February 10, 2021

    Discovery Subpoenas On Airlines Deemed Unrelated To Foreign Embezzlement Suit

    DENVER — A Brazilian foundation did not establish that information it sought to subpoena from three airlines about the subjects of a foreign embezzlement proceeding was for use in that civil action, a Colorado federal magistrate judge ruled Feb. 5, denying in part the organization’s emergency motion for discovery per U.S. Code Title 28 Section 1782.

  • February 10, 2021

    Veteran Asks High Court To Decide If Factual Record FOIA Requests Can Be Withheld

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals incorrectly found that two government agencies properly withheld certain documents under the deliberative process privilege from their responses to his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, a veteran says in his Jan. 15 petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the documents, which he calls “overwhelmingly factual in nature” and “reasonably segregable” from privileged materials, do not qualify for the exemption.

  • February 09, 2021

    Government Ordered To Detail Compounding Pharmacy Owner’s Alleged Kickback Scheme

    BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland on Feb. 5 ordered the federal government to submit a bill of particulars detailing counts against a compounding pharmacy owner accused of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) because the allegations in the superseding indictment involve 491 prescriptions and do not adequately prepare the defendant with enough information to prepare for trial.

  • February 08, 2021

    Delaware Judge Compels Discovery In Misconduct Suit Over Insolvent Insurer

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge on Feb. 4 granted equity investors’ motion to compel defendants to produce documents and responses to interrogatories in a dispute regarding alleged misconduct that caused injury to an insurer in liquidation.

  • February 05, 2021

    Justice Orders New York Health Department To Provide COVID Nursing Home Death Data

    ALBANY, N.Y. — A New York justice on Feb. 3 ordered the state Department of Health (DOH) to produce records of the number of COVID-19-related deaths among nursing home and assisted living residents in the state, finding that the department had violated the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) by rebuffing a nonprofit organization’s request for the information for more than six months.

  • February 04, 2021

    Judge:  Fracking Company Must Provide Documents In Dispute Over Drilling Contract

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal judge in New Mexico on Jan. 12 ruled that a hydraulic fracturing company must provide documents in discovery related to a joint partnership agreement for oil and gas wells that another fracking company damaged, allegedly as a result of performing a well operation incorrectly.

  • February 04, 2021

    Former Willis Re Employee Seeks Expedited Discovery In Employment Contract Dispute

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A former employee of Willis Re Inc. maintains in a Jan. 4 reply brief filed in Puerto Rico federal court that expedited discovery is warranted in a dispute over an employment agreement’s nonsolicitation clause because expedited discovery will aid the court in deciding whether a preliminary injunction should be issued per the employee’s request.

  • February 04, 2021

    Antitrust Plaintiffs May Depose Apple CEO Tim Cook, Senior Vice Presidents, Magistrate Rules

    OAKLAND, Calif. — In a Jan. 26 ruling that addressed three discovery motions in three lawsuits accusing Apple Inc. of anti-competitive behavior regarding its App Store, a California federal magistrate judge required the defendant to make its Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and two of its senior vice presidents (SVPs) available for depositions.

  • February 03, 2021

    Insurer, Insureds Jointly Move For Protective Order In Tornado Coverage Suit

    WINCHESTER, Tenn. — A homeowners insurer and insureds on Feb. 1 jointly moved for a protective order in the insureds’ breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit arising from their tornado property damage.

  • February 01, 2021

    Amici Supporting Microsoft Condemn SCA Nondisclosure Orders In 2nd Circuit

    NEW YORK — In a Jan. 27 amicus curiae brief supporting Microsoft Corp. in a dispute with law enforcement personnel, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other organizations added to a chorus of amici warning the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the government’s now-common practice of obtaining a nondisclosure order along with a warrant issued under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) often does not comply with the strict scrutiny standards of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and threatens to chill free speech and grant undue power to the government.

  • January 28, 2021

    Pending Discovery Dooms Summary Judgment For Asbestos Arc Chute Company

    SEATTLE — While a mesothelioma sufferer currently falls short of meeting the causation standard under maritime law, it appears that ongoing discovery might assist him in his case alleging asbestos exposure in arc chutes, a federal judge in Washington said Jan. 22 in denying summary judgment.