We see privilege issues discussed in judicial decisions, legal commentary, and mainstream news. Here is a roundup of interesting privilege issues for July 2016.
→A Minneapolis trial court overseeing Prince’s estate allowed Prince’s former law firm, Henson & Efron, to disclose the artist’s confidential and privileged information to the trust administering the estate. Read the story here.
→If you play Pokèmon Go using a Google account login, the game’s developer has “unfettered access” to the Google Drive. For businesses that use Gmail to communicate with their lawyers, this access includes attorney–client privileged information which arguably results in waiver. Read this article.
→Former U
tah Attorney General John Swallow seeks a dismissal of corruption charges against him because the prosecutors and their investigators violated his attorney–client privilege by obtaining thousands of Swallow’s emails with criminal defense attorneys. Very interesting story here.
→Oregon refuge occupiers Ammon and Ryan Bundy claim that law-enforcement personnel violated their privileged communications by monitoring their jailhouse conversations. Their proposed solution? Have the prosecutors prepare their case in an adjoining cell. Read the story here. The judge later denied the request, as you can see in this story.
→Former NBA star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson lost a privilege battle over some of his staff’s emails, with the court stating that “every document an attorney has ever seen does not become attorney–client privilege.” Here is the story.
→The Kentucky Attorney General issued an opinion that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis—famous for refusing to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples—violated the Open Records Act by failing to disclose putatively privileged emails and letters with Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit that represents Davis in the marriage-license issue. Story here.
→A lawyer for former Texas A&M and Cleveland Browns Quarterback Johnny Manziel inadvertently sent a text to an AP reporter that revealed implicit communications with Manziel. The lawyer then threatened to sue the AP stating claiming that would violate the attorney–client privilege. He later resigned as Manziel’s lawyer. Read this story.
Great stuff as usual.