Ridder v. Roblox Corporation
- Vince Chhabria
- 3:23-cv-04146
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
Counsel of record per CourtListener. Firm names are approximate and have been consolidated across spelling variants.
In Yaniv De Ridder v. Roblox, Judge Illman denied Roblox’s request to compel Nathan Soucek’s privileged mental-health records.
Nathan Soucek and Roblox Corporation; the ruling concerns Roblox’s request for Soucek’s private mental-health records.
What happened
In Yaniv De Ridder, et al. v. Roblox Corporation, et al., Roblox asked the court to require plaintiff Nathan Soucek to produce communications with his therapists. Roblox argued the records were relevant to the claims, defenses, and Soucek’s adequacy as a proposed class representative.
Soucek argued that he had no additional responsive records, that the records were private and disproportionate to the needs of the case, and that an earlier privilege waiver related to damages claims that had been dismissed. The court agreed with Soucek, ruling that the mental-health records of a minor were privileged and that Soucek had not waived that privilege by placing his mental health at issue. The court also agreed that the earlier waiver could be withdrawn because those damages were no longer at issue, and denied the request to compel the records.
United States Magistrate Judge Bert M. Illman issued the order on March 10, 2026.
The detailed version
- Ridder v. Roblox Corporation · No. 3:23-cv-04146
- Vince Chhabria
- Mar. 10, 2026
Background
The court considered a joint letter brief about whether plaintiff Nathan Soucek had to produce communications with therapists Gary Jeandron and David Leong in response to Roblox Corporation’s document requests. Roblox argued that Soucek had identified the therapists in discovery, produced a document expressly waiving the therapist-patient privilege, and acknowledged that the therapy records contained information about his use of virtual casino words, gambling, gambling addiction, and theft from family members. Roblox contended that the records were relevant to causation, damages, Soucek’s use of virtual casino words, Roblox’s defenses, and whether Soucek was an adequate and typical representative of the proposed classes.
Soucek argued that he had conducted a reasonable search and knew of no additional responsive documents. He also argued that requiring production of a minor’s private medical records was not relevant or proportional to the needs of the case. Soucek said the earlier waiver concerned now-dismissed damages claims involving his mother’s pain and suffering, so the waiver should no longer apply.
Court’s Analysis
The court stated that the records were private mental-health records of a minor and were privileged. It explained that discoverability did not turn only on relevance, even if the records might be highly relevant. Instead, the question was whether Soucek had waived the psychotherapist-patient privilege by placing the protected information at issue. The court also stated that the analysis did not require balancing privacy against the usefulness of the evidence or Roblox’s need for it.
The court concluded that Soucek had not waived the privilege by placing the information at issue. Soucek had stated that he had no theory of damages related to his mental health or therapy, and the court said he would be held to that position. The court further agreed that, because the damages theory involving his mental health was no longer at issue, the initial waiver could be withdrawn.
Disposition
The court denied Roblox’s request to compel Soucek’s mental-health records. United States Magistrate Judge Bert M. Illman signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.