Mealey's Discovery : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Discovery

November 26, 2024
Google Must Provide Discovery In Gift Card Scam Suit Pending Disposition Of Claims

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge on Nov. 25 denied Google LLC and affiliated companies’ motion for reconsideration of a past order allowing discovery to continue in a putative class action against it for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by failing to protect consumers from Google Play gift card scammers, writing that a stay is not warranted by an order dismissing the claims because they were dismissed with leave to amend.
November 22, 2024
Discovery Row Over Info DOL Gave Plaintiffs Grabs House Committee’s Attention

DENVER — Discovery developments in a putative class action challenging an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal are the focus of a Nov. 21 letter in which the chairwoman of U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce asks the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for an investigation because “DOL appears to be working in concert with plaintiffs’ attorneys to circumvent the discovery protections” of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
November 21, 2024
J&J Talc Debtor Wants Lawyer Sanctioned For Skipping Deposition

HOUSTON — The debtor created in Johnson & Johnson’s third attempt at a bankruptcy resolution to asbestos-talc claims urged a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas to sanction an attorney who failed to appear for a deposition, saying a pending motion to quash does not give the deponent permission to simply decide not to appear.
November 19, 2024
Texas Supreme Court: Legislative Subpoena May Not Cancel Scheduled Execution

AUSTIN, Texas — A subpoena in which a Texas legislative committee sought the testimony of a death row inmate, which was issued on the eve of his execution, violated the separation of powers of the three branches of Texas government, the Texas Supreme Court ruled, declining to grant the committee’s petition for a writ of mandamus.
November 18, 2024
Insurance Mogul Says Deposition Sealing Not Needed In SEC Fraud Suit Against Him

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, a former owner of insurers now in receivership, on Nov. 15 filed in a North Carolina federal court a notice stating that “continued sealing” of certain transcript excerpts of his deposition is unnecessary in a suit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that he, his advisory services company and its former executive defrauded clients of more than $75 million.
November 18, 2024
High Court Won’t Decide If Agency Can Waive Immunity Statewide In Google Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Nov. 18 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied without comment a petition for certiorari in which the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SCDPRT) insisted that the state’s attorney general could not waive sovereign immunity on behalf of other state agencies in discovery matters.
November 15, 2024
AFFF Defendants: Protective Order Sought For Deposition Questions Is ‘Meritless’

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The defendants in the litigation over alleged contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) have filed a brief in South Carolina federal court opposing a motion for a protective order sought by the plaintiffs in six specific cases, arguing that the plaintiffs should not be permitted to “outright refuse” to respond to discovery requests and contending that their objections to “sensitive” deposition questions are “meritless.”
November 14, 2024
Google Play Gift Card Scam Victim Says Discovery Should Continue Pending Amendment

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A putative class action plaintiff accusing Google LLC and affiliated companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by failing to protect consumers from Google Play gift card scammers, whose complaint was recently dismissed with leave to amend, filed a brief in California federal court opposing the court’s reconsideration of a stay of discovery while she prepares an amended complaint.
November 12, 2024
Oregon High Court: Advocate-Victim Privilege Shields Phone, Finance Records

SALEM, Ore. — Protections from disclosure provided by an Oregon statute and evidentiary rule to communications between a domestic abuse victim and a qualified advocate also encompass any records related to services provided to the victim even if they do not specifically include confidential communications, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled, granting a women’s services provider’s petition for mandamus relief from a trial court’s order requiring it to provide a victim’s telephone and financial records.
November 07, 2024
Parties To Newspaper AI Copyright Case Debate Progress Of Discovery

NEW YORK — Newspaper plaintiffs in an artificial intelligence copyright suit say technical issues plaguing searches of datasets used to train the AI programs are making the discovery process impossible and asked a New York federal judge to compel OpenAI entities to identify and admit which relevant works were used. In the joint letter, OpenAI says that while the parties are in “uncharted waters,” there is no need for the unprecedented relief the plaintiffs seek. The joint letter comes on the heels of a third case being added to the litigation and disputes over discovery into social media and what types of damages and benefits the New York Times Co. has seen from AI.
November 08, 2024
Judge Enters $13.7M Judgment Against Romania For Sanctions Accrued In Tax Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Nov. 7 granted in part a group of Swedish investors’ motion for entry of a second judgment on accrued sanctions against the government of Romania for failures to comply with discovery as the investors seek to enforce a confirmed $350 million International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award against Romania, but reduced the investors’ request by more than $2 million.
November 07, 2024
Medical Company Can’t Get Defendant’s Ankle Monitor Data In Trademark Dispute

NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York said that a plaintiff pharmaceutical company in a trademark counterfeiting dispute is not entitled to have ankle monitor data from a defendant who was convicted of federal fraud counts, holding that granting the request would allow a non-government agency years of surveillance data, which would amount to a massive violation of the man’s constitutional rights.
November 05, 2024
N.Y. Attorney General Must Produce Some Harassment Investigation Items To Cuomo

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — In a mixed ruling, a New York federal magistrate judge partly granted Andrew Cuomo’s motion to compel the Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG) to produce certain materials from its investigation of sexual harassment claims against the former governor, rejecting the OAG’s assertions of sovereign immunity and some of its privilege assertions.
November 04, 2024
Judge Consolidates AI Suits; Parties To Work Out Social Media Dispute

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York consolidated a fourth lawsuit brought by journalists challenging the use of their content to train artificial intelligence and ordered OpenAI entities and the parties suing them to attempt to resolve a discovery issue over production of personal social media messages. The ruling leaves undecided a motion from OpenAI entities seeking evidence of damages and any positive impact AIs have.
October 31, 2024
Boiler Company Says Discovery Triggered Asbestos Case Removal

SEATTLE — It would have been objectively unreasonable to remove a case alleging asbestos exposure at various locations and to non-Navy products, and it was only subsequent discovery that demonstrated that the case belongs in federal court, a company argues in a supplemental brief opposing remand from a federal court in Washington.
October 30, 2024
OpenAI Opposes Discovery Of Employees’ Personal Social Media Content

NEW YORK — Authors and writers in artificial intelligence copyright lawsuits filed against OpenAI Inc. asked a federal judge for access to employees’ personal social media accounts, saying the record shows work-related use of the accounts. But in response, the company says that the request strays far afield from the case’s central issues, that the company has no possession of or control over the requested information and that the plaintiffs are simply employing a scorched earth discovery process.
October 30, 2024
OpenAI Wants Evidence Of New York Times’ AI Damages, AI’s Positive Impact

NEW YORK — The New York Times Co. must produce evidence of any damages from artificial intelligence, as well as its use of ChatGPT and other third-party AIs, OpenAI entities tell a federal judge in New York in a letter motion seeking to compel production. Concurrently, the companies wrapped briefing on a motion to consolidate, with the newspaper saying it doesn’t object as long as the move doesn’t delay the case, and the defendants contending that adding a third case would ensure smooth handling of all cases.
October 30, 2024
Reinsurance Broker Wins Discovery Stay In Suit Over Vesttoo Collapse Losses

DALLAS — Granting a discovery stay in a breach of contract suit over losses associated with the collapse of Vesttoo Ltd. pending resolution of a dismissal bid, a Texas federal judge said that “under the circumstances” the stay “could streamline” resolution of the case and will not prejudice the plaintiff.
October 29, 2024
Quash Motion Denied In RICO Suit Over Fraudulent No-Fault Claims Totaling Millions

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal magistrate judge on Oct. 28 denied a nonparty’s motion to quash a subpoena seeking production of documents related to his bank accounts in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit alleging that the defendant medical providers and physicians participated in a multimillion-dollar fraudulent scheme to bill the plaintiff insurer for medically unnecessary services, finding “that the request is not overly broad but appropriately tailored to information relating to people and entities allegedly involved in the scheme.”
October 28, 2024
MDL Judge Reaffirms Ruling To Hold Off Discovery Into GLP-1 Marketing Plans

PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania federal judge newly appointed to oversee the multidistrict litigation involving diabetes and diet drugs that consumers allege cause gastrointestinal and other injuries declined to reconsider her case management order that barred the plaintiffs from pursuing discovery into the drug makers’ marketing campaigns.
October 28, 2024
9th Circuit Says It Lacks Jurisdiction To Consider Patent Row Discovery Issue

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed Apple Inc.’s appeal of a California federal judge’s decision to grant an Australian patent holding company’s application for discovery for use in a yet-to-be-filed patent infringement suit in Germany; the panel held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction because the judge’s order was not final.
October 28, 2024
Motion To Quash Denied In $3M STOLI Policy Row Involving Insurer And Intermediary

CINCINNATI — A federal magistrate judge on Oct. 25 denied a retired life insurance company employee’s motion to quash a subpoena in a special action filed in Ohio federal court related to litigation in a Delaware federal court where a life insurer sued a securities intermediary seeking a declaratory judgment that a policy owned by the securities intermediary is void ab initio as a stranger originated life insurance (STOLI) policy, finding that the insurer and employee failed to show that deposing the employee “would impose an undue burden or is not proportional to the needs of the case.”
October 25, 2024
Car Makers Pull Motion To Compel After Agreeing On Mesothelioma Genetic Testing

TRENTON, N.J. — Auto makers withdrew their motion to compel genetic testing in a mesothelioma case, telling a New Jersey judge overseeing the litigation that they reached a stipulation under which the plaintiffs agreed to submit to the testing and protocols governing the evidence.
October 24, 2024
DOJ, Google Cite ‘Impasse’ In Report On Discovery In Sherman Act Antitrust Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Justice (DOJ) and officials from numerous states filed a joint status report along with Google LLC in a District of Columbia federal court outlining discovery issues where the DOJ says the parties are at an “impasse” in a suit in which a federal judge overseeing the case previously determined that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.
October 24, 2024
New Mexico Supreme Court: AG Must Disclose Agency Documents In Talc Suit

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The attorney general’s office’s broad powers imbue it with the prelitigation duty to review nonparty agency documents before determining whether to bring suit, and logic and notions of fair play require making those same types of documents available to Johnson & Johnson in its defense of talc-related marketing claims, the New Mexico Supreme Court said in what it called a narrow issue of first impression.