Mealey's Discovery
-
March 04, 2021
Google Balks At Preserving User Data Logs In Chrome Data-Sharing Privacy Suit
SAN JOSE, Calif. — On March 1, Google LLC filed a reply supporting its motion for a protective order to excuse it from a “blunderbuss preservation demand” made by the plaintiffs in a putative class action over purported privacy violations connected to Google’s Chrome web browser, telling a California federal court that requiring it to retain all Chrome user data logs would be unduly burdensome and costly.
-
March 02, 2021
Discovery Disputes Must Be Resolved In Same District As Reinsurance Arbitration
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan federal judge on Feb. 17 denied a motion to quash a subpoena filed by a third-party administrator for employee welfare benefit plans because any discovery disputes must be resolved in the district where the arbitrators of the reinsurance dispute are located and because the third-party administrator was not a party to the reinsurer’s suit.
-
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 18, 2021
Insurers Seek To Stay Discovery In Excess Collateral Reinsurance Dispute
MINNEAPOLIS — In an interpleader suit over excess collateral in an insurance-reinsurance program, insurers ask a Minnesota federal court in a Feb. 3 memorandum of law to stay discovery on breach of contract cross-claims until the federal court rules on the insurers’ motion to dismiss.
-
February 16, 2021
Union Ordered To Produce President For Deposition In Class Bias Lawsuit
NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York on Feb. 11 partially granted a sanctions motion by New York in a union’s bias class complaint and directed the union to produce its president for a deposition but declined to award monetary sanctions, finding that New York City failed to show why the deposition is needed to oppose a motion for class certification.
-
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.