In re State Farm Lloyds (MDL)

Case Updates

The Texas Supreme Court denied the petition for writ of mandamus. explaining that mandamus is only appropriate where the law is “settled,” and because the discovery standards have not been clear up until this point, mandamus would be inappropriate. However, the Court said that it would remand the case back and State Farm can try again, with instructions to the trial court to consider their request in light of its opinion.

Click here to view the merits brief.

Patrick Oot and Daniel Lim of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. served as co-counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.

In its brief, the U.S. Chamber urged the Texas Supreme Court to block a court order that imposed unreasonable preservation requirements for electronically stored information (“ESI”).

The brief argues that the discovery orders’ misapplication of Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 196.3 to require “native” or “near-native” preservation of ESI imposes undue burdens, unnecessary risks, and unreasonable expenses on defendants. The brief also argues that similar attempts by the plaintiffs’ bar to leverage expensive discovery orders to obtain unreasonable settlements have been rejected by Texas courts.

This brief was filed jointly with the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and Texas Association of Business.

Patrick Oot and Daniel Lim of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. served as co-counsel for the amici.