Brief Fact Summary. The Petitioner, Hickman (Petitioner), representative of a deceased crewmember in a fatal tugboat accident, sought oral and written discovery collected by the Defendant’s attorney in anticipation of litigation. The Defendants in this matter were the tug boat operators.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Written and oral materials taken by a party’s counsel in the course of preparation for litigation is not considered protected by the attorney-client privilege, but is considered the work product of the attorney. Absent necessity or justification, attorney work product is not discoverable.
The general policy against invading the privacy of an attorney's course of preparation is so well recognized and so essential to an orderly working of our system of legal procedure that a burden rests on the one who would invade that privacy to establish adequate reasons to justify production through a subpoena or court order.
View Full Point of LawIssue. To what extent may a party inquire into oral and written statements of witnesses, or other information, secured by an adverse party’s counsel in the course of preparation for possible litigation after a claim has arisen?
Held. Absent a showing of necessity or justification, attorney work product is undiscoverable. Judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed.
Concurrence. United States Supreme Court Justice Jackson (J. Jackson) concurred that a trial is a “battle of wits between counsel.” A common law trial is and always should be an adversary proceeding. Discovery was hardly intended to enable a learned profession to perform its functions either without wits or on wits borrowed from the adversary. “I can conceive of no practice more demoralizing to the Bar than to require a lawyer to write and deliver to his adversary an account of what witnesses have told him.”
Discussion. Where relevant and non-privileged facts remain hidden in an attorney’s file and where production of those facts is essential to the preparation of one’s case, discovery may properly be had. However, the burden is on the party who wishes to invade the veil of attorney work product to justify production through a subpoena or court order.
The Petitioner in this case made no attempt to show necessity or justification that his case would all apart if adverse counsel did not give up his work product. Absent that showing, courts will not overarch the protections of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) with regard to the already liberal discovery rules.