Finding that a lower court had underestimated the harm resulting from the government’s seizure and ongoing possession of privileged material, the Fifth Circuit ruled recently that a “taint team” process was insufficient to protect the rights of the party holding the privilege.  The appellate court’s ruling is part of a trend in which courts have expressed skepticism that the use of “taint teams” by the government is an adequate safeguard against undermining the sacrosanct attorney-client privilege.

As part of a criminal investigation spawned by civil False Claims Act qui tam actions, the government executed search warrants at the offices of Harbor Healthcare System and seized “a wealth of information protected by the attorney-client privilege” including communications between the company’s Director of Compliance and its outside counsel.  Harbor subsequently filed a motion for return of property as provided for in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g).  The District Court ultimately granted a government motion to dismiss that proceeding, finding that a “filter team” and screening process were adequate to protect Harbor’s privileged information.Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Bolsters Company’s Claim for Return of Privileged Documents Seized by Government

In Ingham Regional Medical Center v. U.S. (Jan. 6, 2020), the Court of Federal Claims compelled production of certain government investigatory documents that the Court found were not privileged work product prepared “in anticipation of litigation.” The Medical Center sued to recover payments for outpatient healthcare services performed in connection with DoD’s TRICARE program

This time of year, everything tends to be more scary and spooky, but one thing doesn’t have to be – creating a defensible privilege log! Creating a privilege log can be one of the most time consuming, labor intensive and expensive parts of litigation. The last thing you want is to have to spend additional time and money defending or re-doing work on your privilege log.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5) only requires that the party withholding material based on a claim of privilege “(i) expressly make the claim; and (ii) describe the nature of the documents, communications, or tangible things not produced or disclosed – and do so in a manner that, without revealing information itself privileged or protected, will enable other parties to assess the claim.” Although this seems simple enough, in practice this can actually be more trick than treat.

Here are some things to keep in mind when creating a privilege log to help make it more defensible and less likely to lead to additional time and money making extensive revisions to the privilege log entries.Continue Reading Tips For Making Privilege Logs Less Scary

In conjunction with the 2015 American Bar Association annual State of Criminal Justice publication, Louisa Marion and I have published a new chapter on “Digital Privacy and E-Discovery in Government Investigations and Criminal Litigation.” The article provides an in-depth look at many of the current and cutting edge issues raised by digital privacy

Protecting privilege continues to drive up costs in litigation and government investigations. The explosion in electronically-stored information has made matters worse by generating exponentially more documents to review and log as privileged. Unfortunately, the relief Congress sought to provide more than five years ago through the adoption of Federal Rule of Evidence 502 has not

In conjunction with the 2014 American Bar Association annual State of Criminal Justice publication, Louisa Marion and I have published a new chapter on “E-Discovery in Government Investigations and Criminal Litigation.” The article provides an in-depth look at many of the current and cutting edge issues raised by e-discovery in this context, including

We are pleased to announce the publication of a report titled “Data Law Trends & Developments: E-Discovery, Privacy, Cyber-Security & Information Governance.” The report explores recent trends and anticipated future developments on critical issues related to the intersection of technology and the law, which affect a wide range of companies and industries. In addition, the report highlights key cases and issues to watch in 11 areas of data law, including: information governance, cybersecurity, social media, technology-assisted review, criminal law, regulatory, cooperation, privacy, cross border transfers, bring your own device (BYOD), and privilege.
Continue Reading Crowell & Moring Releases “Data Law Trends & Developments” and Announces Expanded “Data Law Insights” Blog

In a recent article published in Law360, Beware of Conditional Reponses to Discovery, Gregory J. Leighton, Kevin C. May, and Andrew S. Fraker of Neal Gerber & Eisenberg LLP discuss the growing number of cases in which federal judges have scrutinized conditional discovery responses—responses that assert objections but state that documents will be produced “subject to” or “reserving” the objections. Because the use of this type of response is commonplace, and because the potential consequences—including wholesale waiver of objections—suggested by recent decisions could be severe, the issue is worth careful consideration.
Continue Reading To Be Or Not To Be Produced—That Is The Question

The New York Supreme Court’s Commercial Division has proposed sweeping changes to privilege logs that could bring simplicity and efficiency to what has long been viewed as a tedious, frustrating, and needlessly costly practice. The proposal, published for comment on April 3, 2014, would require litigants in the Commercial Division to “agree, where possible, to employ a categorical approach to privilege designations” rather than a “document-by-document log.” Under the current requirements, New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules mandates that a party withholding documents on the basis of privilege produce a privilege log which: “(i) contains a separate entry for each document being withheld; (ii) provides ‘pedigree’ information for each such document; and (iii) sets forth the specific privileges or immunities that insulate the document from production.” As anyone involved in electronic discovery in complex litigation matters knows, this can translate to a large team of attorneys devoting hundreds of hours to recording detailed information about tens of thousands of documents, one document at a time. As recognized in the Commercial Division proposal, “the segregation, review, redaction, and document by-document logging of privileged communications is both time-consuming and costly,” and this cost is rarely justified by the “potential benefits a privilege challenge may have on the outcome of the litigation.”
Continue Reading Simplifying Privilege Logs: New York’s Commercial Division Proposes Categorical Privilege Logs

The State Bar of California may soon deem an otherwise highly skilled attorney to be “incompetent” in the practice of law if he or she does not know the basic steps to take with respect to electronic discovery and does nothing to fill that gap in knowledge. On February 28, 2014, California’s State Bar Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct tentatively approved a Proposed Formal Interim Opinion for a 90-day public comment distribution, which analyzes a hypothetical fact pattern of an attorney who makes egregious mistakes in e-discovery.
Continue Reading California State Bar Offers Guidance on Attorney’s Ethical Duties in Handling E-Discovery