Charles Rutland died in an automobile accident involving a rented U-Haul truck. His surviving spouse sued the rental companies and other defendants and sought a declaration that the companies were not self-insurers under Georgia insurance law. The trial court refused to dismiss that declaratory-judgment claim and entered related orders concerning discovery and a protective order. The Court of Appeals reversed in part and vacated in part. The declaratory action was improper because no actual controversy authorized the requested declaration about excess insurance liability, so that claim had to be dismissed. The court also held that the trial judge abused its discretion by granting a protective order without reviewing each assertion of the driver’s Fifth Amendment privilege. The case was remanded for that individualized review. The stay and judicial-notice issues were moot, and the court noted a separate concurrence questioning whether the decisive issue had been fully developed in the appellate briefs.