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Work Product

The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.

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Southern California Edison Co. v. Superior Court (2024) 102 Cal.App.5th 573

After the Creek Fire, SoCal Edison's law department directed an investigation, conducted mostly by non-lawyer claims department personnel, of SoCal Edison's possible role in causing the fire.  In later litigation, insurers of burnt homes sought production of emails between the claims department personnel and in-house experts or other witnesses sent as part of the internal investigation.  This decision holds that… Read More

Box v. Superior Court, No. D080573, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 1069 (Ct. App. Dec. 30, 2022)

This decision holds that an attorney's jury selection notes are not subject to absolute attorney work product protection in connection with a challenge to the jury panel or the judgment based on racial or other discriminatory use of peremptory challenges or claimed the Batson/Wheeler error.  An attorney’s jury selection notes are unlikely to reveal impressions, conclusions, or opinions about the… Read More