Opinion ID: 2612496
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: on consideration of the paper-work on file in these original proceedings, the court holds:

Text: In Cause No. 74,594, let the writ issue prohibiting the enforcement of orders dated August 23, 1989 and December 8, 1989, entered by the District Court, LeFlore County in Cause No. C-89-273 on its docket, styled Roger H. Linthicum, Personal Representative of the Estate of Barbara Linthicum, Deceased v. LeFlore County Memorial Hospital Authority et al. In Cause No. 74,592, let the writ issue prohibiting the October 6, 1989, order, entered by the District Court, Tulsa County, in Cause No. CJ-89-4366 on its docket, styled Tami J. Lockard and Dennis Lockard, Husband and Wife v. Edwin P. Seaberg, D.D.S., from being treated or enforced as a legal barrier to voluntary ex parte communications between defendant's counsel and any health care provider who may be a potential witness for the plaintiff. Where no legal privilege is deemed to exist with respect to the injury or death that is in litigation, neither statute nor case law prohibits the legal representatives of a defendant from conducting voluntary ex parte interviews with a plaintiff's prospective medical witness, but judicial action may not be invoked to facilitate or impede informal interviews. See Johnson v. District Court of Okla. County, supra . ORIGINAL JURISDICTION ASSUMED; WRITS GRANTED. HARGRAVE, C.J., and HODGES, LAVENDER, DOOLIN, ALMA WILSON and KAUGER, JJ., concur. SUMMERS, J., concurs in part, dissents in part.