In re: James M. Foor and Krystina Foor v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company

Summary

The court held that discovery-sharing provisions are not categorically prohibited by Rule 26 and may be included in a protective order when appropriately limited. It concluded that the trial court did not clearly exceed its discretion by allowing sharing in specific existing cases involving materially identical bad-faith roof claims, but required clarification of the order's permitted cases, enforcement jurisdiction, access requirements, and return-or-destruction obligations. The government-sharing provision was left in place because State Farm had not preserved the arguments it raised against it and its own proposed order contained materially similar language.