Mealey's Discovery

  • March 15, 2024

    Magistrate: Camp Lejeune Plaintiffs Are Entitled To ‘Exotic’ Files Of Water Tests

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal magistrate judge in North Carolina has ruled that plaintiffs in the lawsuit over drinking water contamination at the U.S. Marine Corps Base at Camp Lejeune are entitled to “exotic” modeling files in their native format that pertain to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR) testing at the site.

  • March 14, 2024

    Subpoena For Deposition In Trademark Opposition Will Stay Quashed, Panel Rules

    RICHMOND, Va. — Although with a different rationale than the one espoused by a Virginia federal judge, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 13 upheld an order that quashed a subpoena issued to a foreign entity in opposition proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

  • March 14, 2024

    Bitcoin Firm Maintains Its Pursuit Of Discovery Sanctions Against Miner

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Responding to an order to a Florida federal judge’s order to show cause, a cryptocurrency company filed notice that its disputes over post-trial discovery with a former business associate had not been resolved and that it will continue pursuing civil contempt sanctions against the defendant.

  • March 14, 2024

    2 Complaints Alleging Infections From Detergent Consolidated For Discovery

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York consolidated, “at least for purposes of discovery,” two complaints, one of which is a consolidated putative class action, accusing the maker of luxury cleaning and laundry products of continuing to sell products after learning that they were contaminated with several types of bacteria, including one that is antibiotic-resistant.

  • March 13, 2024

    Camp Lejeune Plaintiffs Seek Immediate Appeal Of Order Denying Them A Jury Trial

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group (PLG) in the litigation pertaining to the drinking water crisis at the U.S. Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune has filed a reply brief in North Carolina federal court arguing that immediate appellate review is needed on whether the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) authorizes jury trials for plaintiffs bringing claims under the statute.

  • March 13, 2024

    Tribes And Voters Challenge 8th Circuit’s Discovery Ruling In U.S. Supreme Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in finding that North Dakota legislators and a government staffer were entitled to the legislative privilege in a case challenging the states’ most recent redistricting plan as unfair to Native Americans, a group of two tribes and three individual voters argue in a petition for writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 13, 2024

    States Move To Lift Discovery Stay In Google Ad Monopolization Suit

    SHERMAN, Texas — A group of states suing Google LLC for antitrust and deceptive practices related to digital advertising moved in Texas federal court to lift a discovery stay pertaining to a network bidding agreement (NBA) with Facebook Inc., contending that despite dismissal of one claim related to the NBA, information about the agreement is relevant to their remaining claims.

  • March 12, 2024

    Discovery Orders Granted, Appeal Filed In Vesttoo Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Cases

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A notice of appeal has been filed concerning the confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan of liquidation for Vesttoo Ltd. and its dozens of affiliates, and a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge on March 11 granted four unopposed motions for leave to conduct discovery against banking entities.

  • March 12, 2024

    Talc Study Evidence Crucial To Defending Case, Defendant Says

    RICHMOND, Va. — A talc defendant defended its need for a list of mesothelioma study participants from a third party, saying in a brief to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the evidence is the only way it has of refuting asbestos-talc claims at trial and that the burden of showing otherwise lies with the party seeking to quash the subpoena.

  • March 11, 2024

    English Justice Addresses Broker Disclosure In Light Of Sanctions On Russia

    LONDON — A reinsurance placing broker would not contravene a set of United Kingdom sanctions against Russia by providing certain documents requested under an application for third-party disclosure in a case involving insurance and reinsurance for aircraft and engines leased to Russian entities, an English justice concluded.

  • March 11, 2024

    Covington Client Dismisses D.C. Circuit Appeal Of SEC Disclosure Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than eight months after a judge ordered Covington & Burling LLP to identify for the Securities and Exchange Commission seven of its clients whose information had been compromised in a cybersecurity attack, one of those clients, proceeding pseudonymously, on March 11 filed a stipulation voluntarily dismissing his appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of that ruling.

  • March 08, 2024

    School District: Information About Monsanto’s Knowledge Of PCB Dangers Is Relevant

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Burlington School District (BSD) has filed a brief in Vermont federal court opposing Monsanto Co.’s motion to quash the BSD’s notice of deposition and opposing Monsanto’s motion for a protective order related to testimony from a time period other than 1935 to 1977, arguing that information related to years since 1977 is relevant because Monsanto disputes allegations regarding the information it may have obtained about polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) after that year and disputes the proposition that PCBs pose a public health threat.

  • March 08, 2024

    DOJ, ACLUF Settle Social Media Monitoring FOIA Row For $240,000 In Fees, Costs

    OAKLAND, Calif. — After almost two years of conferring, filing status reports and submitting documents, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLUF) and several government agencies jointly filed a stipulation and proposed order of dismissal in California federal court, under which they agree to end a five-year-old Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dispute with the payment of $240,000 in attorney fees and costs by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies.

  • March 04, 2024

    J&J Special Master Wants Responsive Documents Prior To Decision On Subpoena

    TRENTON, N.J. — The special master overseeing the federal Johnson & Johnson multidistrict asbestos talc litigation said a consulting firm should produce documents responsive to a subpoena seeking communications between it and law firms the defendant seeks to disqualify, after which the parties can confer about any resulting privileged documents prior to a ruling on a motion to quash.

  • March 01, 2024

    Talc Special Master Quashes Subpoena Seeking Moline Study Participants

    TRENTON, N.J. — Because asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline will not testify at trial, and no other expert appears to rely on her study involving asbestos-talc exposure and mesothelioma, Johnson & Johnson’s subpoena seeking the names of individuals in the study is irrelevant, a special master in the federal talc multidistrict litigation said Feb. 29 in granting a motion to quash.

  • February 29, 2024

    Canadian Lab Opposes Israeli Firm’s Discovery Efforts In WhatsApp Spyware Row

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A nonparty Canadian lab that focuses on “digital espionage” filed a motion in California federal court on Feb. 28, seeking to specially appear in the computer fraud lawsuit between WhatsApp Inc. and NSO Group Technologies Limited for the purpose of opposing NSO’s motion to serve it with a letter rogatory to obtain “sweeping discovery” that it contends is “almost exclusively unrelated to the claims and defenses” in the case.

  • February 28, 2024

    Judge: Former Libby, Mont., Asbestos Clinic Director Must Sit For Deposition

    GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana overseeing an asbestos action against a railway denied two motions to quash a subpoena issued to the former director of a medical clinic in Libby, Mont., giving the parties two hours to depose the witness and circumscribing what may be asked at the deposition.

  • February 20, 2024

    Israeli Firm Seeks Discovery From Canadian Research Lab In Spyware Suit

    OAKLAND, Calif.— With competing motions to compel pending in its computer fraud dispute with WhatsApp Inc., Israeli surveillance technology company NSO Group Technologies Limited asked a California federal court to issue a letter rogatory requesting a Canadian court to compel discovery from a Toronto-based research laboratory that aided WhatsApp in the present suit.

  • February 27, 2024

    Judge Clarifies Discovery Scope After Confusion About AI Insurance Tools

    CHICAGO — Given the court’s and parties’ own confusion about the scope of artificial intelligence tools potentially used in sorting complex and potentially fraudulent claims from more standard ones, homeowner plaintiffs and their insurer should confer and determine what exactly is at issue before conducting further discovery, a federal judge in Illinois said in a docket entry order in a case involving the Fair Housing Act.

  • February 27, 2024

    Oregon Seeks Rehearing After 9th Circuit Ruling In Prisoner Vaccine Case

    SEATTLE — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel created intra- and inter-circuit conflict with a decision denying Oregon’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to quash a trial court’s order compelling the deposition of the former governor in a class lawsuit by prisoners suing over the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations and deaths due to the virus, the state argues in a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc.

  • February 22, 2024

    Tobacco Defendant’s Failure To Produce Asbestos Evidence Not Willful, Justice Says

    NEW YORK — There is no evidence that a tobacco company’s failure to produce reports it no longer has in its possession about testing performed on asbestos-containing Micronite cigarette filters was willful, a New York justice said in denying a motion that sought to compel production or dismiss the company’s answer.

  • February 22, 2024

    5th Circuit Vacates Discovery Order, Remands For Stay Pending Arbitration Ruling

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that no discovery is needed to determine whether there is a valid agreement to arbitrate because a Hurricane Laura coverage dispute can be decided as a matter of law, vacating the lower federal court’s discovery order and remanding for the lower court to immediately grant a stay pending its ruling on arbitration.

  • February 20, 2024

    Petition By Wrestlers’ Attorney Challenging Sanctions Denied By U.S. High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an attorney and his firm who represent allegedly injured wrestlers in a class tort complaint and a mass action against World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and Vincent K. McMahon (together, WWE) and asking the justices to consider the appropriateness of attorney fees and costs as sanctions that they have been ordered to pay.

  • February 16, 2024

    Agency: Evidence Production In Ohio Train Derailment Case Poses ‘Undue Burden’

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) filed a brief in Ohio federal court arguing that it should deny a third-party defendant’s motion to compel the production of certain evidence related to the NTSB’s investigation of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on grounds that the motion imposes an undue burden on the agency.

  • February 16, 2024

    Groups Sue EPA For Withholding Information On PFAS Use In Plastics Manufacturing

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two environmental groups on Feb. 15 sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a permanent injunction directing it to disclose under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) all “wrongfully withheld documents” related to the formation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during the fluorination of plastic containers by chemical company Inhance Technologies LLC.