On October 17, 2014, the New Jersey District Court issued an order granting subpoenas seeking production of documents for use in a foreign arbitration. In this maritime dispute, the breach of time-charter agreements called for arbitration of all disputes arising out of the contracts in London under English law. The offended parties, two US companies, started the arbitration proceeding before the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (“LMAA”) in order to address the alleged breaches. The US companies also summoned the American affiliates of their counterpart in the arbitration to obtain subpoenas seeking highly relevant financial information that would substantiate their claims before the LMAA. The Petitioners’ application for an ex parte order compelling discovery for use in a foreign proceeding was granted pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782(a), titled “Assistance to Foreign and International Tribunals and to Litigants Before Such Tribunals.” The court found that all of the required statutory factors had been met and that the discretionary factors weighed in favor of issuing the subpoenas. In re Application of Owl Shipping, LLC & Oriole Shipping, LLC, No. 14-5655, 2014 WL 5320192 (D.N.J. filed Oct. 17, 2014) is available at http://02ec4c5.netsolhost.com...
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