We have a situation in which a member of a doctor's staff alerts police to the fact that the doctor may be committing insurance fraud by over-billing insurance companies for patient visits that did not last for the amount of time reported or never occurred altogether.

The doctor's civil lawyer has filed a petition to depose the complaining witness/reporting party under Tex. R. Civ. P. 202 under the guise of investigating whether a claim can be made against the complaining witness/reporting party.

Our office, as well as the person sought to be deposed, has filed a Motion for Protective Order to prevent the deposition. However, it appears that in order to have a Protective Order granted, the party requesting the order has to be an "interested party" under the civil rules in order to have standing to ask for the protective order. Obviously, we believe that we are an "interested party" because of an ongoing criminal investigation by the police department, as well as due to the fact that grand jury subpoenas have been issued.

Has anyone out there ever had to deal with this issue? We are trying to find some authority to show the judge that we are, indeed, an interested party since this appears to be nothing more than harassment of the complaining witness/reporting party, and it is a subterfuge to get around the rules of criminal discovery under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The hearing on the petition for pre-suit deposition is tomorrow (4/17) afternoon, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Talk to Grant Brenna in the Civil Division of the Dallas DA's Office. I know he has handled such requests many times.