The attorney-client privilege protects (1) clients’ communications of facts to lawyers, (2) clients’ requests for legal advice from lawyers, (3) lawyers’ request for facts from clients and (4) lawyers’ legal advice to clients. But what about clients’ factual journals not yet communicated to lawyers?
In Correia v. Marine Travelift, Inc., Civ. A. No. 24-183-JJM, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120017 (D.R.I. June 23, 2025), the court assessed defendant’s motion to compel production of a one-page journal plaintiff had prepared. The court quoted other cases holding that the privilege protected notes clients prepared at their lawyers’ direction — even if they were not “contemporaneously read by the attorney.” Id. at *6-7.
Of course. In fact, the privilege should protect notes a client writes in the absence of a lawyer’s direction, and even in the absence of a lawyer — if the preparer intended to later hire a lawyer. The key is the preparer’s intent at the time.
