Opinion ID: 1908395
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Privilege as Applied to This Case

Text: The first step in our analysis is to determine as a threshold issue whether an attorney-client relationship is present in this case. A key element of this determination is whether legal advice was being sought by the client. The second step, once an attorney-client relationship is determined to exist, is to examine whether the communications between the attorney and the client were confidential. For the reasons stated infra, there is no need for us to reach this second step in the instant case, as we find that no attorney-client relationship existed. In clarifying the roles of the parties, we must keep in mind that the attorney is DuPont's in-house legal department, and it is invoking the privilege on behalf of its client, DuPont the corporation. Kaplan is the non-lawyer collection agency that the DuPont legal department hired to collect the Forma-Pack debt, and DuPont is alleging that Kaplan is its agent for purposes of litigation (and that Peck is a subagent). Peck is the attorney that Kaplan, not DuPont, eventually hired to litigate the debt collection matter after Kaplan's efforts proved unsuccessful. [5] A final, critical fact is that Kaplan, the party from whom discovery is being sought by Forma-Pack, is not asserting the attorney-client privilege; only DuPont is asserting the privilege. We affirm the trial judge's decision that the communications between DuPont and Kaplan are not protected from discovery under the attorney-client privilege, as no attorney-client relationship existed. When DuPont, the corporate client, consulted with its attorney, the legal department, it was not doing so for legal advice regarding the Forma-Pack debt. Instead, the client corporation was simply routing the debt collection matter to its legal department, which in turn was to transmit it to an outside, non-lawyer collection agency. According to Professor Lynn McLain: Communications [with in-house counsel] with regard to business advice are unprotected. When the attorney-client privilege is invoked with regard to communications with in-house counsel, the courts will look particularly closely at whether counsel was providing business advice, rather than legal advice or services. 5 LYNN MCLAIN, MARYLAND EVIDENCE § 503.9, at 493 (1987)(footnote omitted). Thus, when DuPont hired Kaplan it was not for the purposes of instituting legal action; instead, DuPont was consulting with Kaplan in a business capacity, for the typical business purpose of collecting a debt. While Kaplan may certainly have been DuPont's agent for the business purpose of collecting the debt, the collection agency was not hired as an agent for purposes of litigation. Nor can Kaplan's role be analogized to that of an expert hired to assist with litigation. The case law clearly delineates several roles of the attorney, also applicable to the attorney's agent, that are generally not consistent with the rendering of professional legal advice. When the attorney, or his or her agent, is primarily acting as a collection agent or business advisor or manager, there is no attorney-client relationship because no legal advice is being sought or given. Consequently, there can be no confidential privileged communications between the parties when the attorney or his or her agent is acting in one of these non-legal capacities. Thus, because Kaplan was serving as a debt collection agent, in a non-legal capacity, there is no attorney-client privilege claim that DuPont can make to effectively shield the communications from discovery by Forma-Pack. [C]ommunications are not privileged merely because an individual provides law-related services if the client should have known the person was not authorized to practice law. 2 CHRISTOPHER B. MUELLER & LAIRD C. KIRKPATRICK, FEDERAL EVIDENCE § 183, at 311 (2d ed.1994)(footnote omitted). In focusing on the specific documents at issue, DuPont has not in the trial court nor in its brief on appeal contended that any individual document has some special reason for being privileged beyond the arguments addressed by the trial judge. DuPont chose to make one argument lumping together all of the documents, with no document singled out as having individualized reasons for being privileged not common to the entire class. In essence, DuPont's argument was that all of the documents exchanged between it and Kaplan enjoyed a privilege. In addition, it is only DuPont's and not Kaplan's attorney-client privilege that is being asserted, and the documents conveyed between DuPont and Kaplan are not protected by DuPont's attorney-client privilege because no attorney-client relationship as to DuPont, the legal department, and Kaplan existed. The trial judge properly found that DuPont failed to meet its burden of proving a prima facie case that these communications were privileged when he stated, there was no evidence of communications between Dupont's legal department and Kaplan which would indicate that Dupont intended the communications between itself and Kaplan would be held in confidence. In sum, Kaplan was hired by DuPont for a business purpose only, to collect a debt. In keeping with this finding, there is nothing clearly erroneous in the trial judge's decision that the attorney-client privilege does not apply to the communications in this case. The judge dealt with the facts presented and the arguments made by counsel, and did so admirably. We agree with Judge Loney when he stated in his written decision that  the communication between DuPont and Kaplan is no more than a business approach used in an effort to collect a debt from Forma-Pack. As such, the Court finds that the communications between DuPont and Kaplan and Kaplan's agents which refer to the attempts made in collecting a debt owed by Forma-Pack are not protected from discovery pursuant to the attorney-client privilege. (Emphasis added). We might reach an entirely different conclusion if DuPont had initially sent the debt collection matter to an attorney, rather than utilizing a non-lawyer collection agency's services, or if DuPont had intended to litigate the matter itself. However, it is clear from the record that DuPont wanted no part of any litigation effort. Indeed, it was within Kaplan's sole discretion whether to litigate the matter or not. If a private individual sent receivables to a collection agency such as Kaplan, the attorney-client relationship would obviously not apply. DuPont, by using its legal department as a conduit through which to route various communications, should not be given a greater privilege than a private client in a similar situation. Thus, we conclude that a corporation cannot shield materials from discovery, and confer on them the cloak of confidentiality, simply by routing them through its legal counsel. To hold otherwise would greatly restrict the liberal underpinning of our discovery rules, at least as they apply to corporations and would allow corporate entities to protect virtually all communications from disclosure. Corporations already have vast resources at their disposal with which to defend themselves in litigation, and we see no reason to provide them with an impenetrable shield that would afford them greater protection from discovery than that of an individual client.