Evidence

The attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine bar discovery of an investigation of plaintiff’s harassment and discrimination complaints conducted, at the employer’s request, by an outside attorney even if the attorney gave the employer no legal advice regarding the matter. Read More

The exclusionary rule, which keeps evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment out of criminal trials, does not operate to bar admission of illegally seized evidence to support a policeman's defense to a Section 1983 civil suit for false, warrantless arrest.  Read More

Although a state-law privilege exists to protect against discovery of tax returns, the privilege is not absolute, and can be overcome when another public policy outweighs the policy underlying the privilege—such as, here, the integrity of debtor examination proceedings.  Read More

The trial court erred in looking at a disputed e-mail's contents to help it decide whether the communication was privileged or whether the privilege was waived, since Evid. Code 915 forbids in camera review of prima facie privileged communications to decide privilege issues.  Read More

A non-party witness must be subpoenaed for a deposition unless, among other things, the witness can be expected to comply with a party’s directive to appear for the deposition.  Read More

A public entity’s inadvertent disclosure of a privileged document under the Public Records Act does not waive evidentiary privileges.  Read More