In Re Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc.

in which Chief Justice PHILLIPS, Justice ENOCH, Justice OWEN, Justice JEFFERSON and Justice SMITH joined.

The plaintiffs in some 150 cases alleging Firestone tire tread separations and Ford Explorer roll-overs seek discovery of Firestone’s skim stock formulas, which they concede in this Court are trade secrets. Although the plaintiffs contend that they *731can prove their tires were defective without knowing the skim stock formulas, they nevertheless argue that disclosure of the formulas is necessary for a fair adjudication of their claims. The pretrial judge assigned to the cases agreed, but in…