In One Beacon America Insurance v. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance, No. 2012-cv-4490 (April 13, 2015, Lackawanna CCP), the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas held that the plaintiff insurance company’s inadvertent disclosure of an intra-office memorandum, referred to as a case conference sheet, was not privileged and therefore did not open the door to a subject-matter waiver of attorney-client privilege, despite the fact that it revealed sensitive communications from the plaintiff’s attorney.
While the opinion thoroughly analyzed the attorney-client privilege as presented in the Superior Court’s Nationwide Mutual Insurance v. Fleming, 924 A.2d 1259 (Pa.Super. 2007), decision, and presented a very detailed discussion of the four factors that must be satisfied before communication becomes protected by the attorney-client privilege, I was troubled by the fact that the court ultimately held that the case conference sheet, which contained communication from One Beacon America Insurance’s attorney to, presumably, a One Beacon claims adjuster was not protected by attorney-client privilege.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]