State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Howard

ORDER

G.R. SMITH, United States Magistrate Judge.

The plaintiff insurance companies in this declaratory judgment action move the Court for a protective order against discovery sought not by their insured, but by third parties suing their insured in a parallel state court case (both the insured and the third parties nevertheless are defendants here). Doc. 44. The third parties oppose and alter*694natively move to stay this case until the state case is resolved. Doc. 45 at 6.

I. BACKGROUND1

On a summer day in 2011, Thurman Lee Howard drove his car along Interstate 95 in Georgia. He was not having a…