Can’t get enough commentary on evidentiary privileges? I am here for you. As you can surmise, I suppose, I read a fair number of judicial decisions applying various evidentiary privileges—but also commentary of professors and other lawyers discussing privilege-related issues.
Presnell on Privileges
Presnell on Privileges, published by Legal Chronicles, LLC, focuses on evidentiary privileges relevant to corporate and outside counsel. The blog covers topics such as attorney-client privilege, work product protection, peer review privilege in healthcare, banking regulations related to suspicious activity reports (SARs), and privilege issues in internal investigations including harassment complaints. It also addresses privilege waivers, privilege in federal courts, and the boundaries of privilege in various legal contexts. The blog provides analysis of court rulings and regulatory developments affecting the application and scope of privileges in litigation and compliance.
Latest from Presnell on Privileges - Page 6
Blanket Privilege Objection with No Privilege Log Constitutes Waiver–and Bad Faith, Court Rules
Here is a question for you: If a producing party objects to a document request on, first, relevancy, and second, privilege, do the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure still require the production of a privilege log? On the one hand,…
A Blurry Situation: Dual-Hat Experts and Protections for Expert Communications
Experts come in all shapes and sizes but fall only into two categories: consulting experts and testifying experts. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide distinct discovery protections—but not privileges—for these two classifications, but the line between these distinctions blurs…
Court Rejects Privilege Protection for Bank’s Communications with Navigant Consulting
Many think that the attorney–client privilege protects communications with the client’s third-party agent, and that sharing otherwise privileged documents with the third-party agent does not result in privilege waiver. Except for a highly specific, “narrow exception,” this is not true,…
Skunk in the Jury Box! Court Refuses to Hear Appeal of Adverse Privilege Ruling. Here’s Why
Walter Pettus Gewin, a well-known and highly respected Tuscaloosa lawyer (and father to renowned trial lawyer and my law partner, Jimmy Gewin), joined the Fifth Circuit bench in February 1962. He authored the opinion in Dunn v. U.S., 307 F.2d…
“Not Even Close”! 11th Circuit Approves DOJ Filter-Team Protocol for Review of In-House Lawyer’s Emails
If the government’s search of corporate offices and seizure of company records produce anxiety, then the seizure of emails from the in-house lawyer’s office triggers outright panic. That is what apparently happened when the FBI, while investigating potential money laundering…
In-House Lawyer Quandary: Business Advice or Implementation of Legal Advice as Part of a Business Decision?
Oh, the privilege land mines that often accompany an in-house lawyer’s legal advice. When an in-house lawyer’s putatively privileged communications landed in a business document, the question arose whether the company waived the privilege. To win the issue, the in-house…
Double Trouble for In-House Counsel LLP
In-house lawyers often wish to shoulder more corporate responsibility, including doubling their legal-counsel role with business-related jobs and titles. And with time an increasingly precious resource, many of wish for efficiency and double-up their communications with business advice and legal…
Sanctions Imposed for Lawyer’s “Repeated, Improper” Privilege Objections
It appears that lawyers are increasingly taking their deposition grievances to the trial judge, including grumbles about defending lawyers’ privilege objections. And another trial judge has responded with criticism of an attorney’s “improper and overuse” of privilege objections that thwarted…
Courts Duel Over Privilege Protection for Email Attachments
The attorney–client privilege protects from compelled disclosure communications between a client and its lawyer, but not facts. Forty years ago, Justice Rehnquist told us that, for privilege purposes, “a fact is one thing and a communication concerning that fact is…