Publications

Submitting Your Defense Bills to Insurers Could Mean Waiving Privilege

6/1/2015 Blog

Recently, the California Court of Appeal decided County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors v. Superior Court, 235 Cal. App. 4th 1154 (2015), a case considering whether the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department could be required to produce legal defense bills in response to a California Public Records Act request.  While not an insurance case, the case could have implications for a common practice in the insurance context: submitting defense bills to the insurer.

The Board of Supervisors court held that attorney billing statements are “confidential communications” within the meaning of California Evidence Code Section 952, and therefore their production could not be compelled.  Significantly, the court held that the LA County Sheriff could not be required to simply redact portions of the attorney time descriptions that reflected attorney opinions or advice.  Indeed, the court concluded that a communication between attorney and client, arising in the course of representation for which the client sought legal advice, need not include “legal opinion or advice” at all in order to qualify as a privileged communication.  Because the bills were, by definition, an attorney-client communication, they were privileged in their entirety.

This new ruling presents a conundrum for California insureds.  An insurance company that is footing the bill for the defense of a lawsuit will of course demand to see the bills, and as a practical matter it is unrealistic to expect that the insurer will pay them without being able to review the descriptions.  In situations where the insurer is defending without a reservation of rights, the insured's and the insurer's interests are completely aligned and the two are effectively joint clients.  But by providing the defense bills to an insurer who has reserved its right to deny coverage – or who has not yet taken a coverage position at all – is the insured waiving privilege?  If the plaintiff in the underlying lawsuit demands that the insured produce “all communications with its insurer,” could the insured then be required to produce its legal bills to plaintiff?

Read the full blog post: Submitting Your Defense Bills to Insurers Could Mean Waiving Privilege

Firm Highlights

News

Farella Braun + Martel Earns San Francisco Green Business Recertification

Read More
News

North Coast Industry Insiders Weigh In on Why California Cannabis Tax Revenue Slipped in 2023

Jeff Hamilton spoke to Susan Wood with the North Bay Business Journal for the article "North Coast Industry Insiders Weigh In on Why California Cannabis Tax Revenue Slipped in 2023." Read the article with Jeff's...

Read More
News

JPMorgan Chase Accuses TransUnion of Stealing 'Trade Secrets'

Intellectual property practice chair Eugene Mar provided expert commentary to American Banker for the article "JPMorgan Chase Accuses TransUnion of Stealing 'Trade Secrets'." In the article, he said: "By filing this as a trade...

Read More
Publication

Corporate Transparency Act: State of the Law and Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements

Key Points: Despite ongoing legal challenges, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) generally remains in effect and enforceable. Clients should continue to abide by its regulations. Initial reports for entities formed in 2024 are due within...

Read More
News

Scraping Battles: Meta Loses Legal Effort to Halt Harvesting of Personal Profiles

Alex Reese spoke to Matt Fleischer-Black of  Cybersecurity Law Report about the Meta v. Bright Data decision and its impact on U.S. scraping case law. Read the article here (paywall or trial).

Read More
Publication

Nonprofit Quick Tip: State Filings in North Carolina and South Carolina

Welcome to  EO Radio Show - Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . Episode 75 is the tenth in a series of Quick Tip episodes focusing on the details of state registration of nonprofit corporations. With...

Read More
Publication

Employment Law Update for Nonprofits With Holly Sutton

Welcome to  EO Radio Show - Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . Charities, foundations, and their founders often request help addressing employment practices and compliance questions. In this episode, host Cynthia Rowland is joined by Holly...

Read More
News

Farella Announces 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinders: Taylor Rottjakob and John Ugai

Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that senior associates  Taylor E. Rottjakob and John M. Ugai have been named 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinders. Pathfinders have been identified as...

Read More
Publication

Corporate Transparency Act: A Guide on Beneficial Ownership for Nonprofit Executives

The Corporate Transparency Act, enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, represents a significant shift in regulatory requirements for entities across the United States. This act, set to...

Read More
Publication

Insurance Market Crushes Wineries and Wine Country Homeowners

We keep hearing about how difficult it is for winery and vineyard owners to get property insurance these days, both for their homes and their wine businesses in California’s wildfire-prone areas. Those who have...

Read More