In Ardon v. City of Los Angeles, the unanimous California Supreme Court narrowly interpreted a statutory waiver included in the California Public Records Act to exclude “inadvertent” disclosures. In responding to a public records request, a governmental agency can withhold documents under several exemptions, including that the documents are privileged under the Evidence Code, if … Continue Reading
On March 20, 2013, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued an opinion clarifying the procedure for designating, and producing, a corporate representative for deposition pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.310(b)(6). In Carriage Hills Condominium, Inc. v. JBH Roofing and Constructors, Inc., 109 So. 3d 329 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013), a roofing contractor brought … Continue Reading
As the summer got started, and his first year on the bench nearly completed, Justice Liu produced four unanimous opinions on wide ranging issues of California law, including arbitration, preemption work product and environmental regulations. This makes a total of six opinions by Justice Liu in civil cases. The other two, Dicon Fiberoptics, Inc. (re … Continue Reading
From the late 1990’s, a wave of litigation and controversy has washed over the public health debate concerning the alleged connection between the then widely-used childhood MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism. Beyond the scores of lawsuits, including class actions, the whirlwind drove down the vaccination rate (because concerned parents’ reservations about vaccine … Continue Reading
Last week the Supreme Court granted review in six civil cases, covering a wide variety of issues: Coito v. Superior Court, which addresses when witness statements are protected from discovery as work product. See Civil Procedure/Evidence/Discovery update. Professional Engineers in California Government v. Schwarzenegger, which the Supreme Court transferred on its own motion before … Continue Reading
Nacht & Lewis Architects, Inc. v. Superior Court may be the most widely cited case in California. It seems to appear in most responses to Form Interrogatory Nos. 12.2 and 12.3 to justify refusing to produce recorded interviews of witnesses, any resulting attorney notes, or a list of interviewed witnesses. Now those numerous discovery responses may be … Continue Reading
