Privilege

The litigation privilege immunized a doctor from being sued by a bus driver, after the doctor refused to certify him for a commercial driver’s license and wrote to the DMV that plaintiff posed a risk to himself and others due to specified cognitive deficits.  Read More

When a suit raises both state and federal law claims, federal law governs all questions of evidentiary privilege—even if the federal law claims are later dismissed before entry of judgment.  Read More

Psychotherapist-patient privilege protected doctor from obligation to comply with subpoena from the Medical Board, which had requested records in association with patient complaint, because before the Board moved to enforce its subpoena, the patient in question revoked his waiver of the privilege.  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