The Honorable Amy Clark Meachum, presiding judge in the 201st Judicial District Court in Travis County, Texas, has ordered GTECH (n/k/a IGT Global Solutions) to produce documents to the plaintiffs and intervenors in Steele et al. v GTECH Corporation. The lawsuit involves over one thousand lottery players in Texas who purchased Fun 5’s scratch-off tickets designed and printed by GTECH. The suit alleges that GTECH used wording on its tickets that fraudulently promised players they would win a prize if their tickets revealed a Money Bag symbol.
GTECH initially produced a large number of documents in discovery, but later claimed some of them were privileged and should not have been produced. GTECH triggered what is known as a “claw back” of the documents. Attorneys for the plaintiffs filed a motion asking the court to order GTECH to produce the disputed documents. After a hearing, Judge Clark has now ordered GTECH to produce some of the documents including internal emails from GTECH. A copy of Judge Meachum’s order can be seen below:
Order-Granting-in-part-Motion-to-Compel-Production
The first bellwether trial of claims by four plaintiffs and intervenors is set to begin in Judge Meachum’s court on April 24, 2023. Attorneys for the plaintiffs have requested the the Court live stream the trial online so that the large number of parties interested in the trial, many of whom are elderly, can watch the proceedings online rather than travel to Austin for the trial. If the Court grants the request, we will post the link to the live stream here on our blog page.