Releasing legal documents under public records law didn't waive privilege, top California court says
Legal documents mistakenly provided by the city of Los Angeles in response to a public records request by a plaintiff in a tax class action are still privileged and should have been returned unread by the lawyer who received them, California’s top court ruled Thursday.
Drawing a distinction between inadvertent and intentional disclosure, the California Supreme Court said that the attorney-client and attorney work product privileges are not waived simply because of a mistaken release.
This is the same rule that applies in litigation discovery, the court said in its unanimous written opinion (PDF), and “there appears to be no reason why inadvertent disclosures should be treated differently in the former situation than in the latter.”
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